Light in the Darkness
by Mod Soul
Summary: [S11 AU] "We DO have a choice. We can just NOT listen to [him] and find a way to defeat The Darkness ourselves!", Dean suggested angrily. "When has that ever worked out?", Sam asked rhetorically. In their fight against The Darkness the Winchesters find some unexpected allies. - Sequel to "Tricked" & its prequel in Ch.10 of "Chance Meetings"; understandable without reading them
1. The Darkness

**Prologue: The Darkness**

Dean slouched in one of the chairs beside the study tables in the Bunker. His mind drifted through all the things that had happened recently and he absentmindedly ran his fingers over his right arm. The Mark was finally gone, but the price they had paid had been high, as they had released something way more evil into the world. They had barely survived their first encounter with this ancient force. He looked in the general direction of the sleeping quarters, where in one of them Castiel was completely knocked out from the attack-dog spell that freaking witch had used on him. Sam and he himself were just as exhausted and would have liked to just lay down and sleep if it weren't for the sole reason that they had to do something. Crowley slowly paced on the other side of the table. Cas had given him a run for his money, but he just didn't want to sit down either.  
"I have a really bad feeling about this whole thing...", Dean remarked after a while, looking first at his brother then at the Demon.  
"Then maybe you shouldn't have gotten us into this mess in the first place?!", Crowley suggested.  
"You shut up! I didn't want this! It was your mother who enacted the spell!", Dean shot back angrily, pointing at the other.  
"Guys! Guys! There's no point in putting the blame on each other. We're in this mess, so let's figure out how to get out of it!", Sam intervened, raising his arms.  
"Well, then Moose. I'm all ears. How do we defeat The Darkness?", Crowley wanted to know, crossing his arms.  
"I don't know. But I think I know what they're after"  
"Really?", Dean unnecessarily asked, while Crowley just made a hurrying gesture.  
"Well, if we can trust the stories then Darkness is always out to destroy Light, right?", Sam theorized and continued without waiting for an answer. "That means whatever they are going to do, part of it will be to search for the brightest Light there is and destroy it"  
"Do they have access to Heaven?", Dean asked after contemplating his brothers' words for a moment.  
"I mean, Death said it were the Archangels that first put the Darkness into its hole, so maybe it is looking for them as their possible worst enemies", he added, when the others looked at him questioningly.  
"The Archangels sealed them away?", Sam wanted to make sure.  
"Good thing they're all out of business", Crowley added his own thoughts sarcastically.  
"Screw you. We know that", Dean replied in annoyance.  
"Technically only two of them are dead. Just as we don't know if they can access Heaven, we don't know if they have a way to access Lucifer's cage", Sam pointed out.  
They sat in silence for a little while, all lost in their own thoughts. Crowley paced a few times back and forth until he stood still and sighed.  
"I know someone who might be able to help you. If he's willing is a totally different story, though", he revealed handing Dean a newly created piece of paper with a neatly written address on it.  
"Who is it?", Dean wanted to know.  
"Keep me posted", the Demon merely answered and vanished.  
"Son of Bitch", Dean grumbled and studied the address.

* * *

A few days later the Winchesters and Castiel were driving towards the address. They had tried to persuade the Angel to stay in the Bunker to recover, but he wouldn't listen. Sam had done some research, but the only information he could find on the houses' tenant was that she was in early thirties and a journalist for the local newspapers and a couple of online magazines. There was no mention anywhere in her records that there was a male currently living with her, so their hopes to find the person Crowley had sent them to, where pretty low. What made matters worse was the dark cloud in the distance that slowly but surely closed in onto the small town. Dean parked the Impala in front of the house and the three of them walked over to the door.  
"I-I feel a lot of Grace coming from this place...", Castiel remarked, his face turned into a frown.  
"Grace? You sure?", Dean asked him in confusion.  
"Maybe that's why the Darkness is closing in on this place, they feel it too?", Sam suggested.  
"Well, only one way to find out", Dean stated.  
As if on cue, Castiel lifted his arm to burst the door open, when Sam stopped him.  
"How about we try knocking first?"  
Castiel looked at him in confusion, then lowered his arm.  
"Of course", he agreed.  
Sam gave him a short smile, turned around to knock and ring the doorbell. They heard the echo of the tune while they waited for a moment until the door was opened far enough for a face to peak outside in confusion.  
"Hi, can we talk to you for a second?", Sam greeted the woman with a warm smile.  
"You may", she answered cooly, not opening the door.  
"Without you hiding behind the door, please?", Sam tried next when Dean interjected: "Crowley sent us"  
"Dean!", Sam chastised him.  
"What? If this really is the address he gave us, then she should know him and probably the guy he sent us to meet here", Dean stated in a matter of fact tone.  
The woman opened the door a bit wider, but before anyone could say anything more Castiel used the chance to stride through the door.  
"Cas!", Dean called out, but the Angel ignored him.  
"Sorry!", Sam apologized as they both followed him inside, leaving her baffled at the door.

Inside Castiel had found his way through the hallway and the joined kitchen and living room into the bedroom that ran parallel to the hallway. Slowly he walked up to the wall that had a darkened hue to it and ran his fingertips across it.  
"Impossible...", he mumbled, starring at his fingers, that now had a thin layer of ashes on them.  
"What is it, Cas?", Dean wanted to know, standing outside the door in the kitchen part of the room, while Sam positioned himself on the other side towards the living room.  
"This Grace...", Castiel started and paused, not believing his own discovery.  
He had turned to them, his eyes still locked onto his fingers  
"What about it?", Sam asked this time.  
"It's - ", the other wanted to explain, but was interrupted.  
"Miss me?", someone else asked from behind the brothers in a mocking tone.  
Alarmed they turned around, their hands automatically pulling their weapons, to find someone they had not expected to see ever again, standing there as if nothing had happened.  
"Gabriel's", Cas finished his sentence, looking up at his brother in confusion.  
"You Son of Bitch!", Dean cursed.

* * *

 **Author's Note:** This story was not planned. It just happened. I started thinking about stories for my Fic "Chance Meetings" and I knew I wanted to write something with a certain character. Well, as that little bugger - *cough*Gabriel*cough* - just didn't want to leave me alone the One Shot escalated into the story "Tricked", which in turn created this alternative version of Season 11 – and let me tell you: So far I have not seen anything, not the Trailer nor Promos, let alone Episodes and I want to stay away from it until I finish writing this idea to not compromise it. But as I know my own curiosity I will try to hurry up with publishing this one, even though I wanted to only post it when I'm actually completely finished writing.

Just so you know: For convenience reasons I decided to skip the "first" episode and the breaking of the attack-dog spell and jumped right into the part of the story I want to tell. There also wont be that many cases mentioned or followed, as I'd like to keep the focus on other things.

Some of the ideas I use throughout the story are probably strange and different, but I did put some thought into them and not randomly made those decisions! A lot is also seemingly left unexplained – especially regarding the semi-main character-, but some of it will be explained later on, other things in Tricked, I just need to update both stories regularly...we'll see how that will work out..

Well, I like Prologues and this story didn't originally have one, but while writing this chapter, I thought that this might be a good break, before we jump into the whole discussion and action.  
If anyone is interested: I blame Gabriel entirely for this whole storyline. That little bugger just didn't leave me alone...a*hole...-.-...

Anyway, I hope you enjoyed the story so far. Chapter One will be up soon!

 **Disclaimer for this and the following chapters:** I obviously don't own Supernatural and it's characters. The theories I created and/or used for/in this story are based on my own thoughts regarding their part in the actual canon.


	2. Confrontation

**Chapter 1 – Confrontation**

"You Son of Bitch!", Dean cursed, instinctively aiming the gun at the heart of the supposedly dead Archangel before him.  
"You were alive all this time?", he wanted to know.  
"How did you survive?", Sam wondered, lowering his gun.  
Gabriel merely grinned: "I have my tricks"  
Dean was infuriated, his whole body shook and even if the bullets were able to inflict any damage, his aim was way off. He wanted to yell and curse and hit and shoot the other, but he had to get information first, so he took a moment calm himself down and put the gun away before he asked: "How did Crowley know you're still kicking it, when you didn't even bother to give us a note?"  
"I met him, we made a Deal. End of story", Gabriel shrugged, his whole body language telling them, that he didn't care about telling them more about it.  
"You could have helped us!", Dean spat out.  
"Oh, really? So YOU would have screwed up less if I'd been officially around? I highly doubt that", Gabriel commented, pointing at the brothers and himself.  
"Screwed up?", Dean replied insulted.  
"You guys are the masters of screw ups! You even screw up if someone tells you exactly what you should and shouldn't do!", the other complained.  
"Guys. There is Darkness closing in on this city!", Sam tried to intervene, stepping a bit closer to his brother and the Archangel.  
"And who's fault is that? Who let those bastards out again, hm?", Gabriel taunted.  
"We didn't know until it was to late", Sam tried defending their choice, but still lowered his head in regret.  
"Of course you didn't! You never do! You charge in and ask questions later!", Gabriel continued his tirade.  
"Could we please focus on the threat at hand?", Castiel interjected.  
Gabriel pointed his finger at him, his face a mask of anger, a warning clear in his words: "You shut up"  
"No, you shut up and listen!", Dean stepped in, blocking Castiel partly with his body.  
The other turned his head slightly to the side and lowered his arm to look at him.  
"You're the friggin' Archangel here. You're the only thing that can do something about them!", Dean bluntly told him.  
"Yeah. Of course I am. Because you morons are again in over your head! You puny little humans are always messing with things you aren't even supposed to get involved in!", Gabriel replied, using his hands to put emphasizes on his words.  
"And whose fault is that? Who sat us up to this life?", Dean demanded to know.  
"You mean because you're Michael's and Lucifer's vessels? You'd still be their vessels regardless of your profession. Your life is not our fault", Gabriel turned the argument around and held his hand to his chest, before he waved towards the brothers and held out his hands and used them like the weighing pans of a scale. "All the choices were yours. You were only supposed to either die or survive their fight six years ago"

Everyone was silent for a moment and the heat of the argument had simmered down a little when Gabriel turned to Castiel again and asked him: "Why?"  
Castiel wasn't exactly sure which of his many deeds the other was referring to, but he just made a step in the dark and answered: "He wanted to restart the Apocalypse"  
"Good thing we need to get them out of the cage now anyway. Well done boys", Gabriel sarcastically commented, clapping his hands.  
The brothers exchanged a look of confusion and warning, when he continued.  
"Look. We Archangels – all four of us – put The Darkness in their dungeon, way back in the day. I'm not powerful enough to do something on my own against them. Still, even with Michael and Lucifer out of the cage, we're still one Archangel short, thanks to Cassie here", he explained, pacing a little and gesturing around.  
"Can you do something about the thing closing in on the town? It seems to be only a part of the big cloud", Dean asked, fully understanding the dilemma they faced.  
"I could try. Though if it overwhelms me, it could kill me and the odds would be even worse. And I'm still not completely recharged", he revealed, with a shrug.  
"Recharged?", Dean tried to make sure he understood correctly.  
"He fell", Castiel interjected and they turned towards him.  
He held out his fingertips, so the brothers could see the ashes. Behind them Gabriel shuffled his feet around. He didn't really like being reminded of that experience.  
"That's when you got the scruff?", Dean joked, trying to lighten the mood.  
"You mean my glorious beard?", Gabriel replied stroking his chin. "Yes, that's when I decided it was time for a makeover"  
"When you decided to look like a hobo?", Dean teased.  
"Hey! Don't insult the beard!", Gabriel complained offended.

"Have you tried the alternative power source?", the woman suddenly asked from the side and the attention was turned towards her, as they had forgotten she was still there.  
"Kind of. The Earth didn't want to cooperate though", Gabriel made a face and bounced back and forth on his heels, his hands in his pockets.  
"Earth?", she asked in confusion.  
"Yeah. I'm from Heaven. Now I'm on Earth", he reasoned in a matter of fact tone, pointing at the respective positions, confused by her confusion.  
"Water is your element", she told him flatly.  
"How do you know, what my element is?", he scrunched his face at her.  
She in turn made a circling motion with her index finger across her face while stating: "Journalist", causing Gabriel to huff and raise his eyebrow at her.  
"The hell you're talking about?", Dean interrupted them.  
"Lucifer fell and lost his connection to Heaven, right?", she asked.  
"Yeah, so?"  
"So, how come, he is still that powerful?", she questioned  
"He found an alternative power source!", Sam realised, excited.  
"Exactly", she confirmed and continued: "The Bible and other sources state that the Archangels were each assigned a different element and a Cardinal Point, so the theory was, that it would be possible to gain more power through using those information", she explained.  
"In his case: Water and?", Sam wondered, waving in Gabriel's direction.  
"North", she answered.  
"So if there is any water in the North, he might be able to get the power-up necessary to defeat the cloud of doom?", Dean summarized, looking at her and waving towards Gabriel as well.  
"Hey, I haven't agreed to help you!", Gabriel complained, crossing his arms.  
"You know The Darkness better than any of us, do you really want them to do whatever it is they do, to this town, if you could do something against it?", the woman tried to reason.  
"The Darkness can't be destroyed. Believe me, we tried. The only thing I could do, is force it to retreat for the moment", Gabriel argued.  
"Than do that. At least do something!", Dean demanded, his anger at the passiveness of the other rising.  
"There is only one tiny little detail you're missing", Gabriel stated, holding his fingertips close together. "You humans have the tendency to go and look at what is happening outside. So I'll probably kill a lot of the townsfolk in the process"  
"The hell?", Dean asked.  
"I have to fight this thing in my true form. The one that burns out eyes and makes heads explode, remember?", Gabriel explained.  
"Crap. So we either let The Darkness consume everyone in this town or let you roast them?", Dean summed up the situation.  
"Basically, yes", Gabriel confirmed.

"Not everyone. We might get a bunch of people by broadcasting a last minute warning and the rest has to be warned manually", the woman suggested.  
"How do you propose we do that?", Dean asked sceptically, turning towards her.  
"I have a friend in the station, who'll make sure the warning will be released in time"  
"Really? And that friend will just broadcast some made up shit?", Dean sounded unconvinced.  
"Yes, he will. He trusts me and if I tell him something is a life or death situation then he'll know I'm serious", she told him and added after a moment: "And he knows about Gabriel"  
"He knows?", Dean asked in confusion, following her gaze towards the Archangel.  
"He was here when he fell", she simply stated, a look of remembrance in her eyes.  
"What about the people? What story do you have in mind that they'll just accept it?", Sam wondered.  
"Maybe something in the lines of: The electricity company is trying an alternative energy source by covering the town in an energy field and someone from the inside leaked information that exposure to this field is lethal", she made up on the spot.  
"And they will believe that?" Dean was still not convinced.  
"The local company is a bunch of dicks. They pulled all kind of stunts in the past, so the people wouldn't be surprised by something like that", she explained and added "They cashed in two whole months for service plus reparation fees after a certain someone totally fried all my cables and they took their time replacing them, which in turn made me unable to use any electricity for more than a month. Or they cut off an elderly woman's connection when her husband died, as he held the contract and wouldn't turn it on again until several weeks and an official court note later"  
"Assholes", Dean commented.  
"Exactly. So it will be easy to blame it on them", she summarized.  
"All right, what are we waiting for? Let's move!", Dean wanted to get started.  
"One more thing", Gabriel dampened his enthusiasm. "Do you have someone I could borrow for a couple of hours?"  
"For what?", Dean wanted to know.  
"Little side project", Gabriel merely remarked with a shrug.  
"No, there is just us", Sam answered instead.  
"Awesome. Anybody upstairs you can recommend?", Gabriel asked next, pointing towards the ceiling.  
"Charlie and Bobby always seemed like a good choice for additional duties. Responsible and hard working", Castiel considered.  
"Hm", Gabriel contemplated the information.  
He stepped forward and held out his fingers to touch Dean's forehead.  
"Woah!", the other stepped back. "The hell you're doing?"  
"I need to know who those guys are, duh", Gabriel commented and tried again.  
This time Dean let him, but frowned and looked suspiciously at the fingers.  
"Ah, that's them", Gabriel finally said stepping back again.  
"What are you up to? You can't bring them back. We burned their bodies!", Dean stated, but Gabriel had already snapped his fingers.  
Beside them lay the bodies of their surrogate father and little sister unharmed and uninhabited and all he could do was stare at them in disbelieve.  
"You were saying?", Gabriel mocked and walked over to them, clapping his hands beside his head.  
Within a heartbeat another Angel appeared in the living room taking in the situation.  
"Bring me the souls of these two", Gabriel ordered, waving towards the bodies.  
"Bobby Singer is under arrest. I cannot take him out of Heaven", the Angel indicated.  
"So? Tell them you have orders from higher up", Gabriel simply offered.  
"They'll know Hannah wont allow this"  
"I said higher up, I never said anything about giving names. Now hurry up, we're a bit on a schedule", Gabriel ranted, waving his hands about.  
"Understood", the other nodded and was about to depart.  
"Oh, one more thing!", Gabriel stopped him, lifting up a finger. "Not a word of their involvement for now. It's easier that way", he added waving towards the Winchesters and Castiel.  
The Angel nodded again and departed.  
"You have an Angel on the leash?", Dean commented impressed.  
"It's easier to keep track of what's happening if you know people in the right places", Gabriel shrugged.

It didn't take the Angel long to return.  
"I could not make it unseen, but I could attain them with the vow to answer questions later" He opened his palms to reveal two glowing orbs.  
"If we make it. Sure", Gabriel commented taking them from him.  
The other Angel left with a nod and Gabriel got down to one knee and placed the orbs over the respective bodies' chest and pushed them carefully inside. The bodies jolted up for a moment and then laid back unmoving.  
"Did it work?", Dean asked from behind them.  
"Patience!", Gabriel merely stated, his hands still hovering over the re-animated hearts.  
It took a moment for Charlie to open her eyes. She focused on Gabriel's face and wondered: "Santa?"  
"Not quite", Gabriel replied grinning.  
Behind him Sam exclaimed: "Charlie?" and was met with a "Sam?"  
Charlie shot up and went to hug him tightly, then turned to do the same to Dean as soon as she saw him. Still on the ground Bobby grunted and slowly opened his eyes. He too focused on Gabriel, who still knelt beside him.  
"You?!", was the first sing he uttered.  
"Me?", Gabriel replied slightly irritated.  
"You're the Trickster", Bobby stated.  
"Have we met?", the other wondered.  
"Yeah", Bobby confirmed.  
"Hm. Can't remember", Gabriel merely shrugged and got back up, offering the other a hand.  
Suspiciously Bobby looked at the hand and got up by himself, making Gabriel role his eyes and turn aside to reveal Dean and Sam.  
"Bobby", Dean stepped over, to help his staggering friend.  
"Dean?! What the hell?", he asked and took the other into tight hug.  
"Lots of time to explain later. We got work to do and you two will be busy somewhere else", Gabriel interjected and put his hands on Charlie's and Bobby's shoulder respectively.  
"Back in sec", he added towards the others and teleported them out of the house.

"The hell is he up to?", Dean asked no one in particular.  
"No idea, but he's our best shot. Could you - ", Sam stated and turned towards the woman, who was already on the phone.  
"We should get going", Dean decided.  
"I'm coming with you. I know this town better than you", the woman stated, covering the phone with her hand.  
"It'll be dangerous", Sam warned.  
"So?", she simply replied.  
"Your call", Dean accepted her decision, walking towards the door.  
"I'll stay here and assist Gabriel", Castiel told them.  
They looked back at him for a moment, Dean nodded "All right. Let's go"

* * *

Charlie's and Bobby's feet touched stony floor. Both of them looked around, Charlie a little panicked, Bobby just calmly taking in his surroundings. They had landed in a dark cellar like room. The air was damp and dry at the same time.  
"Oh, visitors", a middle aged man piped up behind a large desk.  
"Who's that?", Charlie wanted to know, turning around to Gabriel. "And who are you, anyway?"  
"Gabriel. Metatron", the asked introduced, pointing in turn at either of them.  
"You keep an eye on him while I'm gone", he ordered them.  
"What the hell is going on?", Bobby demanded to know.  
"Something nasty, explanations later, now shush!", Gabriel just said, vanishing without another word.  
"Friggin' Angels", Bobby cursed, looking from Charlie to Metatron.  
"Oh, I'm Charlie by the way. We haven't had the chance to officially meet each other", she put out her hand towards Bobby.  
"Bobby. Sorry for breaking your arm", he apologized, taking her hand and shaking it shortly.  
"Ah, that's nothing. I've had worse", Charlie simply waved off.  
"Seriously, I did. I was shot, beaten up by myself. And Dean. Oh, and killed by a stab in the guts by a total psycho. The broken arm was nothing in comparison.", Charlie reiterated.  
"I got shot in the knee and got my throat slit open by Sammy and Cassie removed my Grace", Metatron told them.  
"What? I thought we were sharing war stories?", he added after seeing their uncomprehending looks.  
"You shut your cakehole. We all know what you did and what you got is more than deserved!", Bobby told him.  
"I thought we had a moment there. What a pity...", the other stated and leaned back in his chair, folding his hands over his belly.  
"What does Gabriel want with you?", Bobby demanded to know.  
"He wants me to translate that thing in your pocket so you puny humans can use it", Metatron stated sounding bored.  
"My pock – A tablet?", Bobby realized when he pulled a square stone out of the pocket of his vest.  
"The Darkness tablet", Metatron clarified.  
"The band has a tablet?", Charlie wondered and earned confused looks by the others.  
"No, sweetie, the actual Darkness that existed long before everything else. By removing the Mark of Cain – which is actually dubbed the Key to Darkness by the way – you freed them", Metatron explained.  
"It's like those clever boys have a kink for releasing stuff into the world, that was supposed to be locked up", he added waving his hands about.

* * *

Dean, Sam and the woman ran down the street towards the town center. They had decided against using the car as it would be easier to warn people this way.  
"Hannah!", an old lady called out to the woman from her front yard.  
"Maggie", she returned the greeting and hurried to her.  
"Maggie, please go back inside and close the curtains and warn everyone you know to do the same!", she urged the old woman.  
"Love, what is wrong?", Maggie wanted, grabbing her by the arms.  
"You see the cloud up there? It's something really evil and Gabriel will try to fight it, but that could harm a lot of people. So please stay inside and tell everyone you know to do the same!", Hannah urged her again.  
"He will win. I'm sure", Maggie assured her, taking Hannah's cheek in her hand.  
"And I will warn everyone I can think of and ask them to do the same. What should I tell them?", she promised.  
"Tell them to stay inside and tune into the local station for more information. Please stay safe!", Hannah told her and gave her a brief hug.  
"I will. You do the same", she promised and held her away from her.  
"Now hurry! I'll pray for our angelic guardian!", Maggie now urged, shoving her towards the street.  
With a smile and a last wave Hannah ran off to continue their task.  
"Carlo! Get your things, it's time to get inside!", Maggie called into the garden where her grandson was playing.

* * *

"Huh. So everyone's gone already", Gabriel commented as he re-appeared in Hannah's house.  
"Yeah. They didn't want to waste any time", Castiel replied.  
"Well, then let's not waste any of our own", Gabriel concluded.  
"I - ", Castiel started, but was interrupted with an "I know", as Gabriel put his hand on Castiel's shoulder and transported them to the river in the North.  
"So, let's try this", Gabriel rubbed his hands in anticipation and walked towards the river bank.  
Castiel looked around for a moment. The river and the forest around them seemed calm and nothing gave the suggestion that something very bad was about to happen. Except that it was an eerie silence around them. No birds were chirping, no animal made any kind of move. Everything hid.  
"Do you think this will work?", Castiel wondered, looking towards the dark cloud.  
"It has to. Somehow", Gabriel replied from his kneeling position and hovered his hand over the water.  
He closed his his eyes in concentration and for a few moments nothing happened. Then suddenly the water started glowing.  
"Ha!", Gabriel exclaimed in excitement.  
"It works!", Castiel commented relieved.  
"All right. Now we have to tell them everything's ready on our side", Gabriel stated, standing up again.  
"I'll call Dean", Castiel suggested and took out the phone.

* * *

"Cas? What's up?", Dean asked picking up the call.  
By now they were in the town boulevard, that was lined with cafès and small shops and many people.  
"It worked. Gabriel is ready and out of his vessel", Castiel merely stated.  
"Right on time", Dean answered, looking up at the cloud that was already far too close for his taste.  
"It worked and he's out", he relayed the information to the others.  
"All right then let's get these people out of the streets!", Sam decided and started to turn towards the first café.  
"Wait! I have a better idea", Dean stopped him and changed the phone to his left hand.  
With his right hand he pulled out his gun and fired a warning shot into the air. Around them people stopped in their tracks or started screaming and tried to take cover behind tables, chairs and benches.  
"Listen up everybody! Get inside and close the shutters! NOW!", Dean yelled and shot again after his last comment.  
Without further ado the people hurried inside in fear, helping each other or stumbling over each other.  
"That was a bit drastic", Sam commented.  
"Yeah, but it worked. Now hurry before they close everything with us still out here", Dean replied.  
"Cas, we're good on this side", he told the other over the phone.  
The three of them hurried into the next café that only let them in because Dean was still holding his gun. The shutters rattled down and left the room with only a few stripes of light until there were barely any and a patron turned on the lights. Dean put the phone back to his ear.  
"Cas, what's your status?"  
"Gabriel is absorbing the water", Cas answered after a moment.  
"He's getting ready", Dean told Hannah, who nodded and took out her phone.  
"Turn on the radio! Local station!", Dean told the barrister, still waving his gun.  
A woman behind the counter turned towards the radio and changed the channel. After some static they could here a steady voice speaking.  
 _"_ _Dear listeners, please remain calm,_ _warn your neighbours,_ _return inside and_ _stay_ _there_ _. We recommend you to shut and cover all windows until this experiment is over. We will notify you as soon as we have an all-clear from our source inside the company. - We repeat –_ _T_ _he Energy Union is partaking in an unannounced experiment with a new power source that will spread an energy field across the town. An inside source has confidentially revealed to us that_ _any kind of_ _exposure to this energy field will prove lethal. We do not know yet, when the experiment will start so we ask you, our dear listeners: Please remain -"_  
Dean tuned out the repeated news and was impressed at how well that had worked. The people inside the café had calmed down as they understood now, that Dean had pulled out the gun to save them. He looked at Hannah who nodded at him, when the news changed.  
 _"Dear Listeners, we just received note from our source._ _The experiment will commence in a few minutes! Please return inside, warn your neighbours -"_  
"He took off", Dean heard Castiel over the phone and looked at his brother.  
The two of them shared a look before Dean put his gun away and sat down on the floor at the end of the café. He didn't like being this useless, but out there they would be fried by the Archangel, so this was their only option. _  
_"Keep us posted, Cas, you're our eyes out there", Dean ordered calmly, leaning his head back against the wall.  
"I will", Castiel simply replied.

" _The experiment is in progress! Please do not go outside! We repeat: Do not go outside!"_ , the voice in radio ordered.  
"He has confronted them. They're fighting", Castiel told Dean over the phone, looking up at the wall of white energy pushing against the dark cloud.  
Dean repeated the words to the others. Sam sat down beside Dean to listen in. Hannah came closer to them and sat down on the ground as well. The people in the café were now chatting anxiously and stayed as far away as possible from the windows.  
"He's pushing them away!", Castiel told them excited. "He has the upper hand!"  
"He's winning!", Dean rephrased.  
"Oh no", Castiel said the next moment.  
"Cas? What is it?", Dean sat up straight and took the phone back from between him and his brother.  
"They're pushing him back now! He's losing ground!", Castiel reported, leaving out the fact that part of the energy wall was already consumed by the cloud.  
"Crap. He's losing ground!", Dean relayed.  
"What should we do? He used the power-up, right?", Sam asked.  
"Yeah, Cas said he did, maybe it wasn't enough?", Dean wondered.  
"He's taking in more", Castiel commented flatly, following the glowing stream of water that rose into the air with his eyes.  
"Is it enough?", Dean wanted to know.  
"I don't know, it hasn't reached him yet and he's still being pushed back", Castiel replied, a nervous tone in his voice.  
"Cas, there is something you're not telling", Dean declared.  
"Dean, it doesn't look good", the other answered after a moment of hesitation, but he felt this was the right thing to say, as more and more of the black cloud was covering the light.  
"Crap", Dean cursed, wiping his hand over his mouth.  
"What?", Sam wanted to know.  
"Cas says it doesn't look good", Dean told them.  
"Crap", Sam repeated his brother's words and ran his fingers through his hair.  
Hannah nearly dropped her phone, worry clearly on her face as she looked at the closed shutters.  
High in the sky the water was still rising up, but hadn't reached the light that was more and more engulfed in the dark cloud.

* * *

 **Author's Note:** Well, I didn't want to leave this on a cliff hanger originally, but then again, most of the Episodes do that...sooo...sorry?  
And yes, I couldn't resist bringing Charlie and Bobby back as well, their deaths – especially Charlie's – were just the most frustrating ones.

Just if this isn't clear: The elderly woman from Hannah's tale is Maggie and both the story with the frying of the cables (aka The Fall) and how Maggie knows about Gabriel are explained in Tricked. It also explains how Gabriel ended up working with Metatron, which in turn let to this story, but that's a tale for a different Chapter...

Anyway, I hope you enjoyed the story so far. I'll try to get Chapter Two written up as soon as possible for a change.


	3. The Aftermath

**Chapter 2 – The Aftermath**

"I think I have an idea", Hannah suddenly exclaimed, getting out of her daze.  
Dean and Sam shared a look and then turned to her in question.  
"Praying", Hannah simply suggested.  
"Praying?", Dean wanted to make sure.  
"It might work", Castiel commented, having heard the conversation over the phone.  
"You mean, we should pray to Gabriel and that will help him?", Dean asked, a little confused how that would work.  
"Prayers give us strength", Castiel informed him.  
"Never thought I'd ever say this, but then let's pray he makes it", Dean decided with a shrug.  
Hannah was on the phone again and they could here the voice of the radio change its text again: _"We usually don't promote any kind of religion, but in this situation I feel the need to ask you to pray with me for a good outcome"_

* * *

Finally the stream of water connected with the last remaining piece of the glowing wall and got more and more absorbed in it. When the last drop had fused with the light The Darkness closed around it completely.  
"No...", Castiel breathed.  
"CAS?! CAS?! What's going on?!", Dean screamed through the phone.  
The Angel did not react, as his eyes were fixated on the dark cloud above him. It was as if everything had stopped moving and held its breath; waiting for a sign that told them of the Archangel's defeat. The cloud itself had stopped moving. Suddenly little holes emerged across its surface. Castiel didn't want to believe his eyes when he saw the light that shown brightly through them. More and more holes in different sizes appeared, the cloud swelled like a balloon with too much air until it burst and scattered into thousands of fragments. A bright ball of light was now the only thing hovering in the sky.  
Castiel exhaled, Dean forgotten on the other end of the line.  
"He made it", he told more himself than the other.  
"Thank God. Never again frighten me like that! You hear me Cas?!", Dean ranted, but Castiel ignored him, his eyes following Gabriel's decent.  
"He's coming down", Castiel informed Dean after a moment.  
"Awesome. So we can recall the warning", the other answered.  
"Too fast", Castiel commented and simply dropped the phone, running towards the river.  
With much effort he left his vessel and sought up to meet his brother mid-fall. With his wings broken and shattered he could not steer them well, but at least he had managed to divert the direction of the fall into the river. With a loud splash the two Angels plunged into the water. Castiel freed himself from Gabriel and tried to drag him out onto the shore, but the other instead shoved him out of the river and sunk further down. The river started glowing and Castiel understood that Gabriel was trying to heal himself. Relieved he returned into his vessel and picked up the phone again. He could hear Dean rant on the other side of the line and didn't want to interrupt him. When he made a pause Castiel told him "I'm sorry, Dean"  
"CAS! Geez. What the hell is going on?", the other demanded right away.  
"Gabriel lost consciousness for a moment and plunged into the river", Castiel recollected the events.  
"He is recovering now. But I think it will take some time for him to do that"  
"All right, Cas. Take as long as you need. We'll wait for you guys at Hannah's place", Dean ordered.  
"All right, Dean", Castiel agreed and hung up.

* * *

Dean relayed the information and they left the café together with all the patrons as soon as the all-clear was given through the radio station. The three of them were on their way back when Sam suddenly asked: "How long has Gabriel stayed with you? You seemed quite worried"  
Hannah needed a moment to grasp the question before she answered: "Since his 'death'"  
"That long in one place?", Dean chipped in. "That doesn't sound like him"  
"I sometimes suspected that he thought if he left, you guys would just find him again. He couldn't keep his tricks to himself here either, but at least he kept them civil", Hannah explained.  
"Civil? You mean, he didn't kill anyone?", Sam dug deeper.  
"Yes, there were no casualties. At least that I know of", Hannah confirmed.  
"Wow. Six years without killing. Must be some kind of record for him", Dean joked and the three of them fell into a comfortable silence.

Close to their destination an old voice called out to Hannah from the side. Hannah ran over to the caller and hugged her tightly.  
"He did it", she murmured into her neck.  
"I knew he would", the other replied.  
"Thank you, Maggie", Hannah genuinely stated, after she let go of her.  
"For what, dear?", Maggie asked her, confused.  
"For giving me the idea to send him prayers", Hannah told her.  
"Did it help?", Maggie wanted to know.  
"I'm not sure, but it might have. He won and that's what counts", Hannah concluded in relief.  
"That's all that matters", Maggie agreed.  
"Hannah?", Dean called out, looking at the two woman in confusion.  
"Gotta go, stay save", Hanna said her goodbye and hugged the other again, before returning to the others.  
"You too child. Give him my thanks!", Maggie called after her.  
"I will", Hannah replied, waving one last time.

"She knows, too?", Dean wondered.  
"Yeah", Hannah confirmed.  
"How?", Dean merely asked.  
"It's kind of a long story", Hannah tried to avoid the answer.  
"We have time until they get back", Sam suggested.  
"Okay, fine. During his first weeks here he stopped a terminal sickness from spreading further inside the body of Maggie's husband and she saw him doing that. So the next time they met she asked him about it and he told her who he is", Hannah explained.  
"That wasn't that long?", Dean questioned.  
"That was the shortened version", Hannah told him.  
"He really did that? He saved someone?", Sam wondered.  
"Yeah, but it was part of his deal with the local Reaper that had recognized him before that. He told him to heal Harold – the husband – and he would not tell anyone that he was still alive", Hannah expanded on her explanation.  
"Yeah. That sounds more like him", Dean agreed.  
"So, he hasn't changed much aside from the killing, which probably is also part of the not drawing attention to himself-plan", Sam concluded.  
"Oh, he has changed. You do realize that he saved this town only partly out of duty and guilt?", Hannah asked them.  
"True. He's still a dick in my book", Dean replied with a grin.  
"Fair enough", Hannah agreed.

Back in Hannah's house the three of them sat down on the couches that stood in a rectangle around a low table. Sam and Dean shared one large one, with their backs to the door and Hannah took one of the smaller ones, facing the kitchen.  
"What is it like to have him around all that time?", Sam wanted to know.  
"Exhausting", Hannah only replied, slouching further into the couch.  
At their uncomprehending looks she asked them: "Do you have any idea how easily he gets bored? Cas is probably way easier to entertain"  
"Why did you put up with him then?", Dean asked next.  
"I don't know. He seemed so lost when he first arrived and then I guess, I just got used to having him around", she tried explaining.  
"How did you find out what or who he is?", Sam inquired.  
"He let it slip in one of his tirades. He loves ranting about stuff...", Hannah revealed.  
"And before that you thought he was human?", Dean asked.  
"Yeah. I realized he was different, but I had no clue how different", Hannah agreed.  
"And you just went with it after you found out?", Dean wondered.  
"Yeah. In retrospective probably not one of my smartest decisions, but I don't regret it"  
"Regret what?", Gabriel now asked, standing shakily in front of the couch opposite the Winchesters and just plopped down.  
"Painting the kitchen red and the living room blue", Hannah quickly made up.  
"You mean: You don't regret making me paint them?", Gabriel elaborated.  
"It was your fault most of my walls had to be torn down and replaced in the first place, so it's only fair", Hannah defended herself.  
"Technically it was Metatron's fault", Castiel chimed in, sitting down on the couch opposite from Hannah.  
"See. He should have done it", Gabriel agreed, waving remotely in the direction of his brother.  
"Well, he wasn't the one actually frying my cables", Hannah remained stubborn.  
Gabriel grunted and sunk deeper into the couch and put his feet on the table: "I'm too exhausted to argue with you right now"  
"That's a first", Hannah quipped.  
"Oh, shut up and let me rest", Gabriel shot back, only half-serious.

"You guys want something to drink in the meantime?", Hannah asked towards the Winchesters.  
"Please tell me you have beer!", Dean hoped.  
"I do", Hannah merely acknowledged nodding towards the kitchen, signalling them to follow her.  
On her way she held out her phone to Castiel for him to read something on the display. He nodded and she continued on her way.

"So what now? We just wait?", Dean asked after taking a sip from his beer.  
"Looks like we don't have a choice. He's the only one who knows where Charlie and Bobby are and also the one with the most knowledge about The Darkness", Sam confirmed, not really liking the option either.  
"Any experiences with this kind of exhaustion?", Dean now turned to Hannah.  
"Well, the last time he actually slept was after the fall and that knocked him out for three days straight", she told him.  
"Three days? I really hope this won't take that long!", Dean exclaimed and was met with grumbling from the couch.  
"Maybe we should go somewhere else to talk – garden or bedroom?", Hannah suggested.  
"Garden", Dean replied.  
"Bedroom", Sam answered at the same time.  
They looked at each other in question.  
"I'd like to know more about the fall and that's where it happened, right?", Sam explained with a question towards Hannah.  
"Yeah, but I can't tell you much about it. He locked himself in and I only saw the aftermath", Hannah verified.  
"May I?", Sam asked turning towards the bedroom.  
"Sure", Hannah agreed, passing him and leading them inside.

"We never really got the ash stains out, even though we painted over it several times", she explained, after she closed the door behind them.  
Sam moved his fingertips across the stains, much like Castiel had done earlier.  
"So, did he crash-land in here or what?", Sam asked rubbing his fingers together.  
"No, he was already down here and his wings just started burning off", Hannah tried to explain, hugging herself.  
"I had friends over that night and didn't notice that he wandered off, he often does that when he's bored. But suddenly the ground started shaking and someone ran inside, yelling something about a meteorite shower and then every light bulb started to burst and I realized that Gabriel was gone and saw the light coming out from underneath the door. As I said, he had locked the door behind him, so I was only able to enter when he was passed out on the ground", she recalled the events and sat down.  
"It was terrifying. My whole house was dark, he laid there unconscious and bleeding. I didn't know what to do", she told them, waved towards the ground and then held her fingers over her mouth.  
"He came to himself for a moment and mumbled something about falling and Heaven being closed and then was out for three days. When he woke up, his Grace was that far gone that he was basically human", Hannah finished.  
The brothers stood silent for a moment, taking in the new information.  
"His Trickster powers didn't help him with that?", Sam asked into the silence.  
"No. But I think you have a wrong impression of them. They're not some additional power-up, they're more of a way to channel his existing powers. They're fuelled by them and sugar, so with one thing nearly gone, they're pretty useless", Hannah explained.  
"You really know a lot about him?", Dean asserted.  
"I ask a lot of questions – comes with the job", Hannah shrugged.

The three of them were silent for a moment, the brothers drank their beers.  
"There is one thing I don't get", Dean suddenly stated, pointing the bottle towards Hannah.  
Both Sam and Hannah looked at him in question.  
"How can you be so calm and fine about what and who he is? Did you freak when you found out?", he asked.  
"No. I was utterly confused and only fully grasped it later"  
"You said, he let it slip. How did that happen? What did he rant about?", Dean inquired next.  
"Well, you, kind of", Hannah revealed, waving into their direction.  
"Us?", Sam wanted to clarify.  
"Yeah", Hannah confirmed.  
"How did that happen?", Dean asked confused.  
Hannah silently pointed towards the book shelve beside Sam. He leaned down and his face fell into a mask of annoyance, when he looked at the contents, a flat "Oh" leaving his lips. He picked up one of the books and showed the volume of the Supernatural-book series to his brother.  
"Seriously?!", Dean demanded to know, annoyed and frustrated.  
"Funny, I believe you even managed to quote his tone", Hannah joked.  
Sam laughed at that and put the book back inside the shelve.  
"So, he complained about the books and then about us?", Dean summarized.  
"Yeah. It was shortly before Lucifer killed him, so I guess he was especially frustrated with you guys", Hannah confirmed.  
"Hang on. You said he's been her SINCE he died?!", Sam piqued in.  
"Yeah"  
"So how can he complain about us before that?", he deepened the question.  
"Oh, he was here once before that", Hannah amended her earlier statement.  
"Why?", Dean asked.  
"Reasons?", Hannah tried, hoping she would not have to elaborate on the topic.  
"Wait. No. Please tell me you didn't do what I think you did!", Dean demanded.  
"Dean?"  
"Think, Sammy!", he urged his brother waving towards Hannah and the bed.  
The wheels in Sam's head turned until he came to the conclusion: "Gross!"  
"So, did you?", Dean asked, awkwardly motioning towards the bed, his face scrunched.  
"Yes, we did", Hannah confirmed, trying to sound as calm as she could.  
"Are you – are you still doing … IT?", Dean wanted to know next.  
"Dean!"  
"It's all right. I don't mind, I've had to answer questions like this many times by one of my friends, who never really liked him, either", Hannah explained towards Sam, with a smile, then turned to Dean: "Yes. Yes, we do"  
"Why? I mean he's an ass and ... stuff", Dean tried to wrap his head around this.  
"Yeah. He can be, but he's still an ass that really knows how to do THAT stuff", Hannah took a different approach to stop the interrogation.  
"Okay. Too much detail! Can we please change the topic?", Dean now begged, turning away for a moment.  
"You started it", Sam reminded him.  
"Yeah and now I regret it", Dean admitted.  
"But why is it gross? It can't be the vessel, you've both been with someone inside one", Hannah now wanted to know.  
The brothers shrugged awkwardly.  
"I guess, it's because the thought of HIM being with someone as nice as you, is just weirding us out", Sam tried to explain.  
"Thank you, I guess. Though, he's really not that bad all the time", Hannah acknowledged.  
"You're the expert on that. We mostly know him through the times he played tricks on us or tried teaching us lessons through killing us or threatening to kill us", Dean explained.  
"Yeah, that leaves a pretty crappy picture. But that's kind of his thing. He had to distinguish himself from Michael and Lucifer somehow, so he became the goofball of their quartet, who never cared much for anything than a good joke. With the Trickster powers this only increased and his carelessness turned into apathy for the lives of those he taught his lessons to. Just for the sake of the joke", Hannah reasoned.  
"Did he tell you that?", Dean wondered.  
"Not directly. I pieced it together from his behaviour and the things he actually told me", Hannah clarified.  
"It's an interesting point, though. I never thought about it that way, but he is kind of the odd one out", Sam thought loudly.  
"What do you mean?", Dean asked him.  
"Lucifer is the rebellious sadist, which was probably heightened by the Mark, Michael's the one abiding the rules at all cost -", he started.  
"And Gabriel the one denying the rules exist and still ends up following them, anyway", Dean continued the train of thoughts.  
"And Raphael the one following the example of his last remaining brother", Sam finished.  
"Right", Dean agreed.  
"It does make sense", Sam confirmed.  
"It's still a weird thought. You two, I mean", Dean changed the topic again, pointing at Hannah and the door.  
"It's like Jafar hooked up with Jasmine", he compared.  
"Genie", Hannah only said.  
"What?", Dean asked, not sure he understood.  
"If we go with your example than he his definitely Genie", Hannah expanded her statement.  
"God, why did I make that comparison?!", Dean complained clutching his head.  
Hannah and Sam sniggered at his reaction.

"Maybe we should check, if he's woken up yet?", Hannah suggested after a moment.  
"Good idea!", Dean agreed relieved that they had dropped the earlier topics.  
The trio returned to the living room, where Gabriel now lay completely on the couch, facing the back-rest and snuggled up into a blanket. Hannah bend down beside the arm-rest and felt the temperature of his forehead. Gabriel steered and she quickly removed her hand. He craned his neck and looked up at her, still sleepy.  
"Hi", he merely whispered.  
"Hi", she replied with a smile.  
"How long?", he wanted to know.  
"Maybe an hour", she told him.  
"Felt longer", he mumbled and tried sitting up.  
Through doing that he entangled himself more and more into the blanket.  
"Where did that come from?", he wondered pulling at the cloth.  
"The end of the couch", Castiel commented solemnly.  
"I know that. I meant: Why. Is. It. Here?", he complained, finally freeing himself and kicking the blanket back to the end of the couch.  
"I covered you with the blanket, because Hannah asked me to", Castiel explained, looking at her, who had sat down on arm rest.  
Gabriel followed his eyes and turned his head towards her, raising an eyebrow in question.  
"Last time you blacked out you started freezing up, so I wanted to work against that. I also asked him to put you fully on the couch as soon as you were out, because the way you laid looked uncomfortable", she explained.  
Gabriel huffed and looked down at the table.  
"So you really are too weak to fight them", Dean stated.  
"What?", Gabriel asked, slightly confused.  
"Cas said they nearly had you completely covered", the other elaborated.  
"Not just nearly", Castiel murmured quietly, but was unheard.  
"Thing is. Darkness: Big fluffy cloud. Right in the middle: Even darker thingy. Pretty much their heart. Had to get to that to dissolve them", Gabriel explained, gesturing with his hands.  
"So you had to let them overpower you to literally strike at their heart?", Sam wanted to make sure.  
"You got it. Now, please stop moving", Gabriel confirmed and asked, frowning.  
"Moving? I'm standing still", Sam returned.  
"All right then that's my head. Dizzy...", Gabriel concluded and rubbed his face a few times.  
"Water?", he asked, looking up at Hannah.  
"Glass?", she wanted to make certain.  
"Bucket", he corrected and added: "The one for cleaning! Full!", when she was already on her way to the kitchen.  
It didn't take her long to bring back the bucket, so when she did Gabriel carefully put it on his knees and dipped his head into it. He stayed like that for a moment before he raised his head in an arc, spreading droplets of water across the table.  
"Wuh...pff...", he blew a few more drops out of his face.  
"By the way, good thinking with the prayers. Gave me a little additional juice", he complimented out of context, before he changed the topic again, waving towards Castiel: "Did he mention I nearly dried the river?"  
"No", Dean replied, looking at Castiel.  
"So you can't use the water as a power source, but you actually use the water?", Sam theorized.  
"It's more like transforming it", Gabriel clarified and looked down into the bucket.  
A bluish light started emitting from it and slowly the stream rose up and covered his face, before it fully disappeared.  
"That's better. Now there's only one Sammy left", he commented, while the others still stared at him.  
"Do only the Archangels have this option?", Sam wondered.  
"You mean the element thingy? No, I don't think so. I mean, dad literally used parts of us to create the other Angels and we each ended up having our own flock. So they probably are able to do that too", Gabriel explained, now more energetic than before, even using his hands again.  
"Cas, what's your element then?", Dean wanted to know.  
"Wind", the other replied after a moment of thought.  
"Right you actually are one of Raphael's lot", Gabriel commented, leaning back against the couch.  
"You remember your brother's element but not your own?", Hannah stated in question.  
"Shush. Can't remember everything", Gabriel only avoided the answer.

"So, what should we do now? Look for more clouds so you could destroy them?", Dean asked after a moment.  
"Weren't you listening? I DISPERSED them, I didn't DESTROY them. You can't destroy The Darkness. It's some kind of stupid power balance thing. Without Darkness there is no Light and without Light there can't be Darkness. Though, either can be with the other subdued and sealed", Gabriel explained again.  
"So what do you propose we do then?", Dean wanted to know.  
"I'd suggest you – or we in this case – do something, I doubt you've ever done in your life"  
The brothers looked at him in confusion.  
"Properly plan ahead", he revealed after a theatrical pause.  
"And what would your next step be, oh wise Gabriel", Dean mocked.  
"I like the sound of that. I'd say we start with my side project", Gabriel suggested and snapped his fingers.  
Behind the couch Charlie and Bobby appeared, but between them stood Metatron, someone they had not expected.  
"What?", was everything Dean could say to that.

* * *

 **A** **uthor's** **N** **ote** **:** The more I wrote for this, the more I realized I had to split this chapter again. Part of me wanted to end at Metatron's entrance anyway, part of me wanted to add more to keep the title. Still, I think this is the better ending and the chapter just got a different title. My initial structure of the story is screwed already, so one more chapter doesn't matter anyway...

Funny side-note: It's always interesting when I can't remember the English word for something, so until I figured out how to describe it properly, Gabriel raised his head "schwungvolly" out of the bucket. The word sounds fun, though... ("schwungvoll" is the German word for energetic, but it can also describe a gesture like that, so...). I had a few of such words scattered across the handwritten chapter draft, but this one was the most ridiculous.

Hope you like the story so far. I'll try to get chapter 3 ready by Tuesday at the latest. Most of it is already written anyway, I just need to type and edit it.


	4. Allies

**Chapter 3 – Allies**

"What?", was everything Dean could say to that.  
"I was in the middle of a sentence!", Metatron complained, still holding the pen.  
"Then finish it!", Gabriel suggested in annoyance.  
"I can't! I've lost my plot!", the other returned.  
Gabriel grunted and put his feet back on the table, awaiting a reaction from the others.  
"What the hell is he doing here? Have you been plotting with him all this time?", Dean accused him.  
"Hell no. I like being an Archangel, thank you very much. Why would I help him in turning Angels human? That doesn't make sense at all!", Gabriel defended himself, offended.  
"Turn Angels human?", Sam asked confused.  
"Yeah. That's what that stupid spell was all about. Dad's _big_ plan for us. The Endgame for all angelic existence. After going through all the trouble of creating you guys as vessels for us, he wanted us to become mortal. This moron just misinterpreted it", Gabriel explained, waving his hands about.  
"I'm not sure I understand", Dean admitted.  
"Oh, why would you be able to conceive something like that with your puny mortal brain", Gabriel jeered.  
"So, Father started creation to give us bodies?", Castiel wanted to know, never having heard of this.  
"Yes, he created us as energy balls for the purpose of defeating The Darkness and then realized that that is a pretty weird form of life to be, especially if we can't interact with anything else he created. Before he actually started the only things he created were gooey worms with teeth, a couple of space rocks, us and some bacteria that puffed into smoke as soon as we got too close to them. So he tried creating things that actually had bodies that would be able to sustain us and after a few millennia of experimenting, blowing up prototypes and evolution he ended up with humanoids. And that's were his plans changed", Gabriel explained, "He liked you guys, so he used the technique he had used to create us, to create Souls for you guys and make you more independent – free will and all that jazz. Still, he didn't forget about us and took a piece from each Angel to create a Soul that would at some point be able to inhabit a vessel for that Angel to use – the true vessel, so to speak. And that spell Metadick used should have been activated as soon as every true vessel was inhabited, so that we could live out our remaining days as mortals. He probably saw it as reward"  
"So evolutionist and theologians are BOTH right?", Charlie interjected in surprise.  
"Oh yeah. Always fun to see them argue about it, though", Gabriel confirmed grinning widely.  
"I told you I backed the Neanderthals", Castiel reminded Dean.  
"Yeah, you were pretty wacked out at the time, so...", Dean defended himself for not remembering and believing him.  
"Haha, we had bets placed on the monkeys that would make it. I liked the _Homo Erectus_ , they were fun", Gabriel commented, laughter in his voice.

"You still haven't told us what Metatron is doing here", Sam changed the topic.  
"Wait, is that a tablet?", he added after a pause.  
"It's the Darkness tablet. He's translating it", Bobby explained, pointing his thumb towards Metatron.  
"The Darkness tablet? You said there is nothing about the Mark of Cain in the tablets!", Sam snapped.  
"Because there isn't! I wrote all the tablets and there is not a word about the Mark of Cain on it!", Metatron tried in defence.  
"But there is something about the Key to Darkness, which is its actual name", he added with a sly grin.  
"You Son of a Bitch!", Dean cursed, clenching his fists, ready to cross the room and hit him.  
"Don't blame me for not knowing what that thing is really called!", Metatron held up his arms in defence.  
"Anyway, how did you get him to cooperate?", Sam asked Gabriel, who just raised his eyebrows up and down.  
"Okay, what do we got?", Dean wanted to know, changing the topic and trying to channel is anger into something more productive.  
"Not much...", Charlie revealed, looking through the pages she held in her hands.  
"It's hard to translate this masterpiece into your puny words", Metatron complained.  
"Kevin could translate the Leviathan tablet in a couple of hours", Dean exaggerated.  
"He was a prophet, it comes easier to them", Metatron simply stated.  
"You had to kill him", Dean accused.  
"You killed a prophet?", Gabriel asked in amazement.  
"He could have thwarted my plans by translating the Angel tablet!", Metatron defended his decision.  
"Yeah, but how did you manage to actually KILL a prophet without me knowing?", Gabriel rephrased his question, "I mean, we're talking about Kevin Tran, right?"  
"Yeah, why?", Dean confirmed.  
"Let's just say: I should have received that call – in theory at least", Gabriel pondered.  
"What's that supposed to mean? You were Kevin's Archangel?", Dean asked.  
"As far as I know. We took turns and even while I was with the Pagans I still got the occasional prophet to look after", Gabriel told him.  
"Heaven thought you were dead, so with Michael gone as well, it was decided that Raphael would be the guardian of all future prophets", Castiel explained.  
"Which you stopped by blowing him up. Well done Cassy", Gabriel complimented sarcastically.  
"All right. So you've found the Darkness tablet and Metatron is translating it, so we can use it, what else?", Sam tried bringing the conversation back on track.  
"What happened to the other tablets anyway?", Gabriel asked instead, ignoring Sam.  
"Most of them are still buried. You secured the Demon tablet from me, he has the Darkness tablet and Cassy over there destroyed the Angel tablet", Metatron recounted, pointing with his pen at Gabriel, Bobby and Castiel in turn.  
"Really? It could have been useful!", Gabriel complained.  
"I'm sorry, but it was the only way to stop him", Castiel replied in defence, nodding towards Metatron.  
"Kevin could put the Demon tablet back together after Cas dropped it", Sam remembered.  
"Do you have some kind of problem with tablets?", Gabriel wanted to know, his head turned towards Castiel.  
"No, I think they are very useful", Castiel replied.  
"Ah, right. So that's why you've destroyed two of them already? By the way: You're not getting anywhere near that one!", Gabriel decided pointing towards the tablet, Bobby was holding.  
"What is this Darkness stuff anyway? No one really told us anything", suddenly Charlie changed the topic.  
"You do the explaining", Gabriel waved towards the brothers.  
With a sigh Dean sat down and motioned for the others to do the same. Sam seated himself beside him, Charlie plopped down on the couch, where Hannah had sat before, Bobby sat down beside her and Metatron beside Gabriel.

* * *

"We need more than five people to pull this off", Charlie concluded with a huff, sinking back into the couch, after Dean had finished his tale.  
"What do you mean?", Dean wanted to know.  
"Well, we don't no squat about The Darkness - "  
"Except what he told us", Sam interrupted, pointing towards Gabriel.  
"Yes, right. Still there is a lot of research to be done, if we really go for the proper-planning-option. And there is the problem that he's only one of four Archangels and we have to figure something out to get the other three back", Charlie finished.  
"Can't we use the Horsemen-rings to get Michael and Lucifer out of the cage again?", Bobby suggested.  
"That might prove difficult", Dean admitted hesitantly.  
"Why?", Bobby demanded in suspicion.  
"Before Rowena lifted the Mark off of Dean, Dean kind of killed Death...", Sam revealed reluctantly.  
"You, what?", Bobby exclaimed.  
Gabriel groaned and leaned his head onto the back of the couch. "Easy is not in your vocabulary, is it?", he mocked.  
"Shut up...", Dean half-heartedly tried.  
"Go on Ginger, I like the way you think", Gabriel put the topic aside for now with a wave of his hand.  
"Thank you, I guess?", Charlie replied a little confused.  
"Okay, so we need to get Death back as well then", she added to the list.  
"And we'd need to find a way to protect mankind from the final confrontation", Hannah added.  
"Uh, hadn't thought of that, yet!", Charlie admitted.  
"We should see if we have anything on either of those topics in the Bunker", Sam suggested.  
"Bunker?", Bobby asked.  
"Long story", Dean simply stated.  
"Oh, we could relocate there and do the actual planning!", Charlie exclaimed.  
"Sure. Can you teleport them?", Dean asked Gabriel.  
"Eh, no?!", he refused.  
"Why not?", Dean retorted, annoyed.  
"I don't know where that thing is!", Gabriel complained., lifting up his hands  
"Then find out the way you did with them!", Dean nearly yelled at him.  
Gabriel grumbled again and put his feet back on the ground. With some effort, and Hannah's help, he managed to stand up shakily. Castiel pulled his legs close, so he could walk past him, but Gabriel nearly stumbled anyway, anger and irritation clearly on his face at his current state. When he finally stood in front of the other couch he only motioned for the brothers to stand up. They looked at each other and reluctantly got up. Gabriel lifted his hands, the first two fingers outstretched, and aimed for their foreheads, but in the last moment he lowered his hands in a swift movement and pierced their hearts, a semi-apologetic look on his face. Dean and Sam stared at him in surprise, unable to say a word, Charlie gasped and Bobby and Castiel stood up to attack him as light emitted from Gabriel's arms and eyes and the Winchesters slowly started glowing as well. Light came out of their eyes and opened mouths, but that wasn't the only thing. The Light became dimmer and dimmer until it turned completely black. More and more Darkness left the brothers until only light remained. This happened to Sam first and Gabriel let go of him, causing him to drop onto the couch in exhaustion. It took a moment longer with Dean until he could finally release him as well. As he did Gabriel staggered back, as Dean flopped onto the couch. Castiel caught his brother's back and helped him to sit down again.  
"Now you really have to drive. All six of you", Gabriel decided, waving in the general direction of Charlie, Bobby and Metatron.  
"What did you just do?", Charlie shrieked.  
"I - ", he stopped, closing his eyes for a moment, "Pushed The Darkness out of their Souls. Can't have eavesdroppers"

* * *

"We won't be able to transport everybody with the Impala", Bobby thought out loud after a while.  
"Put him in the trunk", Gabriel suggested, waving towards Metatron and was met with a "Hey!".  
"Sounds good, but it would still be cramped on the back-seat", Dean agreed.  
"I could drive my car", Hannah offered.  
"Just drive or become even more part of this?", Dean wanted to make sure.  
"If you let me: The latter", she confirmed  
"Why would you want to be part of this? For him?", Dean asked, nodding his head towards Gabriel.  
"No. Though I do believe it'd be easier for me to keep you guys from killing each other", she denied with a small smile, "No, it's just – I don't know – You don't always get the chance to help save the world. It's a stupid reason, but I can't just stand aside doing nothing, you know", she tried explaining.  
"It'll be even more dangerous from now on", Sam reminded her.  
"I'm fully aware. But still, I think I could be helpful. Especially for the last part of the plan, as that guy from the local station isn't my only contact", Hannah offered.  
"I want a research buddy!", Charlie exclaimed and lifted her hand, every eye was on her for a moment and she added: "What? There is too much testosterone in the Bunker anyway!"  
"You okay with this?", Dean ignored her and turned towards Gabriel.  
"No. But my opinion doesn't matter in this decision anyway", he replied with a shrug.  
"We wont take you on any cases", Dean decided.  
"I'm more than okay with staying behind providing information. I don't think, I'd be much help in the front lines anyway", Hannah agreed.  
"All right, leaves the driving situation", Sam ended the discussion.  
"Put Metatron in the trunk and you can take Cassy and Bobby in the back-seat. Ginger gets our shotgun", Gabriel suggested.  
"Do I have a say in this?", Metatron complained.  
"NO!", came the reply from several people in the room.

"Do you know the way?", Hannah asked Charlie.  
"Yeah. I guess I could navigate you there", the other confirmed.  
"Then you guys drive ahead and we'll follow when we're ready", Hannah told Dean and Sam.  
"You want to pack first?", Dean wondered.  
"Yeah, I'd prefer not having to wear the same things every day", Hannah confirmed.  
"Understandable, but this is not a beauty trip, so nothing fancy!", Dean warned her.  
"I'm not stupid", Hannah replied, slightly offended.  
"Just making sure you know what you get involved with!", Dean lifted his hands in defence.  
"Three psychopaths and their friends trying to save the world from destruction by an evil force two of them released, did I forget anything?", Hannah summarized smugly, crossing her arms and only received an acknowledging shrug from Dean.  
"Who's the third? Am I the third?", Gabriel wanted to know.  
"Yes?!", Hannah confirmed.  
"That is rude", Gabriel complained.  
"It's the truth"  
"All right, let's go then", Dean cut off the discussion.  
He then crossed the room, grabbed Metatron's shoulder and made him stand up. Sam and Bobby went ahead, while Castiel waited for Dean to come around again and help him manoeuvre through the hallway. Dean gave Metatron several shoves until he stopped resisting and simply walked in the direction, he was supposed to go. With a snap of his fingers Gabriel took the pen away from Metatron, so he would be even more defenceless. Finally outside Dean pushed Metatron in the trunk and shut the lid above him.  
"We're off!", he yelled and they got into the car.

* * *

In her bedroom Hannah had put a travelling bag on her bed and looked through the clothes she would take with her. She had given her laptop to Charlie, who was using it to find her way back to the Bunker. After a while Gabriel leaned against door-frame: "You really want to do this?"  
"Yes. I've made up my mind", she replied, putting a shirt into the bag.  
"You're still scared", Gabriel stated, folding his arms.  
"Terrified", Hannah admitted, picking up another shirt, "I still think, I could help. I want to help and if it's just cleaning the Bunker. I don't want to sit around here doing nothing", Hannah explained all but throwing it inside the bag.  
"I understand. Just be careful", Gabriel commented, stepping further into the room, his hands in his pockets.  
"Of course", Hannah agreed, closing the distance between them and kissing him briefly.  
"Now go and get some more rest while I finish this!", she ordered him with a playful pat on his chest and a smile on her face.  
Gabriel returned the smile and shuffled back into the living room, where he sat down on the arm-rest of the closest couch and just let himself drop backwards. Charlie followed his movement with her eyes, but soon decided that that was none of her business and buried herself in the laptop, not just trying to find the way, but also catching up with news.

It didn't take long for Hannah to finish packing and the three of them got into her car as well. Gabriel made himself comfortable on the back-seat, leaning sideways, his feet on the seat and fell asleep right away.  
"It's weird to see him sleep. I imagined Archangels to be _really_ powerful and all and then you see him like this and it's just weird", Charlie tried to put her thoughts in order.  
"I know, it's also really scary. The fight took quite a toll on him and seeing that that was only the beginning, makes it so much worse", Hannah added her own thoughts.  
"Better we find something to give them a power boost fast...", Charlie decided and added: "Let's talk about something else!"  
"Okay, how did you get involved in all this?", Hannah asked to change the topic and started the car.  
"Oh, that is an interesting story!", Charlie declared and started her tale, "It all started, when I was just a normal employee of Roman Enterprises. No one paid attention to me, so I used my time to do some more productive things, you know, like hacking into their bank account to donate to charity and stuff. One day my boss – Dick Roman himself – called me into his office and told me that he knew about my activities and offered to drop any charges if I managed to retrieve any information from a hard drive..."

* * *

When they were close to the Bunker the two of them were still chatting and laughing. All the way they had talked about their lives, their experiences, the supernatural and the books about it and everything they could think of.  
"Oh, this is it!", Charlie noticed and showed Hannah were to park her car.  
After she turned off the engine Hannah tried calling out to Gabriel, but he didn't react, so she tried shaking him from the front-seat, but again nothing happened. She got out, opened the door he leaned against, only to have his upper body drop down towards her.  
"Oh, come on! I know you're awake!", she scolded him and tried pushing him back inside, but he was to heavy for her.  
Gabriel's grin widened and he sat up by himself and unfastened his seatbelt.

* * *

Inside the Bunker the others already waited for them. On their arrival they had put Metatron back into the dungeon and then had used the time to bring Bobby up to speed. Sam showed Charlie and Hannah their rooms and shortly afterwards all of them got together in the study hall.  
"We need something to write on", Charlie complained, sitting on one side of the large table.  
Gabriel simply snapped his fingers and two large white boards appeared beside them.  
"Uh! I love white boards! I write!", Charlie called out in excitement and jumped up.  
"Okay. What do we got?", Dean wanted to know, looking around.  
They recollected what they had talked about earlier and Charlie wrote it down on the white boards. After some discussion they ended up with a nice list of steps, covering both boards.

 _II Revive necessary people_  
 _I Make list who to revive_  
 _III Gather information on:_  
 _a) resurrecting Death_  
 _b) Darkness_  
 _c) (Arch)Angels_  
 _IV Bring Death back_  
 _V Bring Michael & Lucifer back_  
 _VI Figure out how to create fourth Archangel_  
 _(VII Find fourth Archangel)_  
 _VIII Find a way to stop:_  
 _a) Darkness_  
 _b) Lucifer from destroying the world and/or_  
 _c) Lucifer & Michael continuing their fight_

"Now I know, why we never stuck to plans. They're too much work", Dean concluded after they were finished, leaning back in his chair.  
"This time we do", Sam sighed, running his hand through his hair.  
"You can cross out stuff from lists!", Charlie reminded them with glee in her voice.  
"So, who should we bring back?", Bobby got them back to business.  
"Kevin", Dean and Sam said in unison.  
"Though I'm not sure if he is upstairs or still here. Last time we saw him his mum took him home as a ghost", Sam contemplated.  
"You – Oh, I don't want to know...", Gabriel started, but resorted to simply shaking his head.  
They all fell silent for a moment until Hannah suggested: "How about Ellen, Jo and Ash? You'd have two more hunters and someone who can help Charlie with finding patterns and stuff"  
"She has a point", Dean agreed, impressed.  
"Frank!", Charlie suddenly called out.  
"What?", Sam and Dean replied.  
"With Ash, Frank and me – obviously – we'd be able to manipulate the media into sending whatever message we need!", Charlie explained enthusiastically.  
"All right that should be enough for now", Dean declared the thinking session to be over.

"Great, that means now we get to the fun part of negotiating with Heaven", Gabriel said, slamming down his hands on the table.  
"Hannah wont come down. She doesn't like occupying vessels and only does that in emergencies", Castiel told him, from across the table.  
"And _this_ is not an emergency?", Gabriel asked, making a circling motion with his hand.  
"Not really", Castiel denied.  
"Ugh...okay...as I'm not going up there, I need you two to get me some stuff", Gabriel ordered Dean and Sam.  
"Why us?", Dean demanded to know.  
"Because you should know the area around your own hide-out better than any of us", Gabriel flatly told him.  
"So, I need lake or river water, some clay or the like from its bank and some wood light, no stick fire-thingies... ", he jumped right to the list, but couldn't remember the word of the last thing and made a striking motion with one hand, while pretending to hold something in his others hand:  
"You mean matches?", Dean suggested.  
"Yes! Exactly! Those!", Gabriel agreed, pointing at the other.  
"Oh, and a pen and some paper, but I don't think you have to leave to get those", he added right away.  
"What do you need that stuff for?", Sam wanted to know.  
"You'll see", Gabriel simply replied with a sly grin.  
Dean sighed: "How much do you need?"  
"A bucket each should be enough", Gabriel shrugged.  
"A bucket? All right. We'll get you the water and the clay, Charlie can you give him the other stuff?", Dean asked.  
"Sure, but could you give Mrs. Tran a call first? I found her number", Charlie replied, looking up from Hannah's laptop.  
She had used the time to get back to the machine and search for it.  
Dean exchanged a look with Sam, who sighed and pulled out his phone: "Okay, give me the number..."  
The phone rang for a moment until finally there was a reply: "Mrs. Tran. Hi. This is Sam Winches – No! Don't hang up! - Thank you! Is Kevin still with you? Okay, good. I mean not good, I mean – Anyway. We have a way to bring him back. You'd just need to bring him to the Bunker. - No, that is not a joke. - Okay. See you then", Sam ended the phone call, looking a little bit paler than before.  
"You must have really left quite an impression on the poor woman...", Gabriel commented.  
"Shut up. We're off now. Come on Sammy", Dean ended the conversation and went to grab two buckets, before they left the Bunker.

* * *

After a moment Charlie placed a pen and some paper in front of Gabriel and got back to the laptop. Gabriel picked the pen up and started writing something in Enochian. When the sheet was half full he stopped and looked in confusion at the sign he'd just written.  
"Hey Cassy, is this spelled correctly?", he asked Castiel and shoved the paper across the table to him, pointing on the sign with the pen.  
"If you wanted to write 'herd'", Castiel told him.  
"Herd? That was supposed to be hair...", Gabriel replied with a frown, staring at the sign, half leaning on the table.  
"May I?", Castiel offered, reaching out for the pen.  
"Sure", Gabriel handed it over and Castiel crossed out the wrong sign and wrote the correct one on the sheet.  
"Now it reads hair", he commented and gave both letter and pen back to his brother.  
"Thank. You", Gabriel replied and finished his writing.

* * *

[***]  
"Who does he think he is?", Dean complained, shovelling dirt away to reach the clay at the river bank.  
"The Archangel Gabriel?", Sam reminded him with a shrug, putting down the bucket he had filled with the river's water.  
"Rhetorical question, Sammy, rhetorical question!", Dean nearly yelled at him and shoved the shovel forcefully into the ground.  
"Why do we have to do his dirty work?", he added after finally reaching the clay.  
"He was pretty out after the fight with The Darkness and we do know where the river is", Sam tried to be the voice of reason.  
"Screw that. Screw him. This is ridiculous!", Dean complained, throwing the shovel's content into the second bucket.  
"I think he has a plan", Sam tried again.  
"Yeah. Amazing plan. Jumping Michael and Lucifer out of the cage again", Dean mocked.  
"Dean, we DO need them!", Sam reminded him.  
"Are you even listening to yourself? Did you forget all the crap we've been through to put them there?!", Dean now yelled at his brother, stabbing the shovel into the ground.  
"Of course not! It's just...we don't have a choice", Sam retorted.  
"We DO have choice. We can just NOT listen to Mr. I-ran-away-from-my-familiy-to-become-a-Pagan-Trickster and find a way to defeat The Darkness ourselves!", Dean suggested, angrily waving his hands about.  
"When has that ever worked?", Sam asked rhetorically and crossed his arms.  
Irritated Dean got back to shovelling clay into the bucket, before he said: "I wont let him get them out of the cage until we are absolutely certain they wont jump-start the Apocalypse again"  
"Neither will I", Sam agreed.  
"And I'll kill those son's of bitches if they do, no matter what it takes!", Dean declared.  
"How are you going to do that?", Sam wanted to know.  
"Oh, you watch me, I'll find a way!", Dean promised determined.  
"Let's bring that asshole his dirt...", he called out, after he had filled up his bucket.

[***]

* * *

By the time the Winchesters returned Gabriel had the letter folded in half and had went to the kitchen to set up a bowl. Bobby had just given him a set of matches, he had just found while looking through cupboards, when the door opened. The brothers came back inside and Charlie directed them into the kitchen.  
They placed the buckets on the table and Gabriel took the bowl and dunked it into the lake water to fill it to about a quarter of its height. He then took a great chunk out of the clay with both his hands, put it in the water for a moment and then formed it into a loaf, before he parted it at the bottom and carved two more parts out of the side and extended them. At last he formed the upper part into a smaller ball. Bobby, Sam and Dean watched him in fascination and more than once wanted to say something, but Gabriel silenced them with a look. When he was finished with the shaping he put the figurine back into the water. While it sank down to the ground Gabriel cleaned his hands on a piece of cloth, he had found earlier and took out the matches. He lit four of them at the same time and held it above the bowl, inhaled and blew the flames into the bowl. To Bobby's and the brother's surprise the whole thing started burning and Gabriel took a few steps backwards.  
"What the hell is that?", Dean finally managed to ask.  
"Little trick the Pagans taught me", Gabriel revealed with a grin.  
"Now we wait for it to burn out, then we can call Hannah", he added, rubbing his hands free from the remaining clay.

When the fire in the bowl had ceased Gabriel took out the dry figurine and wrapped it into the letter he had written and the four of them returned into the study hall, where he called the Angel that had brought him Charlie's and Bobby's Souls.  
"Hannah is waiting", the Angel flatly told him.  
"Figured. Give her this. Don't peek", Gabriel simply replied handing him the package.

After the Angel had vanished Gabriel simply stepped onto the seat of a chair and swiftly turned to sit down on the table.  
"Dude", Dean complained, but Gabriel just ignored him.  
"So, we wait again?", Sam wanted to know.  
"Yup. You can get to your little machines and check for any weird tales", Gabriel suggested, making a typing motion with his hands.  
Sam shrugged and got to the other side of the table and actually got out his laptop. Dean sighed and returned to the kitchen.  
"Do you still need this stuff?", Dean called out to Gabriel.  
"Yes. But you can throw it away if you want to go onto another errand for me", Gabriel replied.  
A grunt came out of the kitchen when Dean put the buckets to the side and cleaned the bowl.

* * *

It took a while but then Hannah appeared wearing a female vessel, that looked like the woman she had used before.  
"Gabriel. It is good to see you again", she greeted him, but he merely shrugged.  
"We need to talk, have a seat", he said, pushing the chair he had used to get onto the table towards her.  
"Yes. We do. I'd rather stand", she only replied.  
"Suit yourself", he shrugged again, calling the chair back to him, putting his feet onto it.  
"You really are working with the Winchesters. Is this why you needed the Souls of their associates?", Hannah wanted to know, looking over at Dean and Sam, who said behind Gabriel on the other side of the table.  
"Yes and no, partly", Gabriel looked over his shoulder and then back towards the other Angel.  
"I needed someone to look after Metatron", he simply stated  
"You have Metatron? You have to hand him over to us!", Hannah demanded.  
"Not yet. Still need him"  
"For what?"  
"To help with the translation of tablets. You do realize The Darkness is out of their dimension, right?", Gabriel wanted to know, waving his hand around.  
"Yes. I also remember the tales of how you defeated them, but I don't see how these humans could help you with that", Hannah replied, slight insult in her voice.  
"Raphael highly exaggerated those stories", Gabriel told her and then added: "I'm not sure yet either, _but_ they did prove quite resourceful time and again. A bit of cooperation never hurt anybody. It's the fallout that usually ends messy"  
"Then what do you want from me? I suppose you wont return to Heaven and take up your rightful place?"  
"Hell no. I'd go nuts up there", Gabriel replied.  
Behind him Dean snorted and bit back a comment when the Archangel turned towards him.  
"No. I need you to release a couple of more Souls, put me in charge of the prophet Kevin Tran, but leave the switch to create new prophets turned off. And while you're at it: Close the door behind you and seal off Heaven completely", Gabriel recounted.  
"What?", Hannah only replied confused.  
"The Darkness is after Light to either destroy or subdue it, if they gain access to Heaven I doubt any of you'd be able to fight them off", Gabriel explained the last part on his list.  
"So you'd rather leave us vulnerable and trapped?", Hannah rephrased it.  
"It sounds bad, when you put it that way. Still, I can't have any of your people running around on Earth drawing attention to them and Heaven"  
"They are also your people.", Hannah corrected him and earned an eye-roll for it.  
"There is currently only one entrance to Heaven, that is constantly guarded, would it be enough to take down all operations on Earth for now and retreat, but still have the possibility to flee Heaven if necessary?", she suggested.  
"I can live with that", Gabriel agreed after a moment of thought, nodding his head from one side to the other.  
"Um, sorry?", Charlie interrupted from the end of the table, her hand raised.  
When the attention was on her she lowered her arm and said: "We could put some hiding seals on the entrance. I mean if we find any..."  
"Yes, that I can accept", Hannah agreed.  
"Which reminds me: We also need access to the archives", Gabriel added as an afterthought.  
"The archives?", Hannah wanted to make sure.  
"Lots of research", Gabriel simply waved off.  
"Then one of your requested Souls has to remain in Heaven to conduct the search. I don't want mortals in Heaven", Hannah tried to bargain.  
"Sounds fair. So we agree then?", Gabriel agreed.  
"I'd prefer it, if you'd return and took over from me, but I understand your need to help", Hannah replied.  
"You do?", Gabriel wondered.  
"We've all been human and now just standing by and watching feels horrible and you know what devastation The Darkness can bring, so the need to help is even stronger", Hannah explained.  
"Ahh. Anyway, I heard you're doing a great job upstairs, so I don't think you'd need me", Gabriel changed the topic, and handed her the slip of paper with the names on them.  
As their conversation was over Hannah turned to leave, when Gabriel called out her name she turned back around to await another command.  
"Who'd you recommend to raise up to Archangel status?", he asked her instead  
"Why?", she couldn't quite grasp why he'd ask her.  
"We need someone to replace Raphael", Gabriel simply stated, misinterpreting her question.  
Hannah thought for a moment and then looked at Castiel. Gabriel followed her eyes and commented: "Really? Interesting choice"  
"No! I do not want that much power! I had it and did unspeakable deeds with it!", Castiel refused, when he realized what his siblings implied.  
"Yeah, that's because you filled yourself up with Souls from Purgatory – or in other words: Darkness infused Souls. Archangel powers are different. They're a Light-source, remember? They enhance the abilities you already have and give a few add-ons", Gabriel explained.  
"What if the raising up doesn't work or we don't find a way to do it?", Dean wanted to know.  
"Then we're screwed", Gabriel replied with a shrug, still half turned towards them.  
"Full of optimism, aren't you?", Dean jeered.  
"Never been a fan of miracles", the other replied turning back around.  
"Is that all?", Hannah asked.  
"Yes. You can leave now", Gabriel confirmed and Hannah nodded and did.

"In the meantime, how about we have a little chat with Hell? To keep the day balanced?", Gabriel suggested, jumping down from the table.  
"We should summon Crowley?", Dean tried to clarify.  
"Calling him would probably be easier", Gabriel waved off.  
Grumbling Dean started the call  
"What do you want Squirrel? I'm busy tracking down mummy dearest", came the reply from the other end of the line.  
"We need you in the Bunker ASAP", Dean simply stated.  
With a huff Crowley appeared beside Dean and theatricality ended the call: "What for?"  
"Oh, hello Gabriel", he greeted after he'd taken a look around the room.  
"Crowley", the other returned the greeting and sat down on the chair, one arm on the table the other on the backrest, his legs crossed.  
"You're working with them now?", Crowley asked waving towards the Winchesters.  
"The market for good minions is not the best right now", Gabriel commented with a wave of his hand.  
"Tell me about it. Loads of imbeciles. What's the emergency?"  
"The Darkness"  
"Still haven't gotten rid of that lot?", Crowley commented, shoving his hands into his coat pockets.  
"Not that easy, but there is something you could do", Gabriel replied, leaning towards the Demon and pointing at him.  
"Me?", the other replied, placing his hand over his heart in question.  
"Yeah. You see to create Lilith Lucifer used the power of The Darkness to twist her Soul into the first Demon. She in turn created Eve, who thought up all those lovely little monsters of hers –"  
"Interesting history lesson, but what's your point?", Crowley interrupted him.  
"Every Demon, every monster created by Eve and its descendants has Darkness inside of them, which means: It's only a matter of time before The Darkness uses that against us", Gabriel revealed standing up again in a swift move.  
"What do you mean?", Dean asked from the side lines.  
"The Darkness is able to control or at least manipulate everything that came from them. Hence Lucifer's fallout after he got jealous of humans. Hence your descent into mass murder, yadda, yadda, yadda", Gabriel listed, waving his hands about.  
"Why do you think, did I cleanse you're Souls on our first meeting?", he asked, now turned towards Dean.  
"You said, you don't want eavesdroppers", Sam quoted Gabriel, who acknowledged this by pointing his hand at him in approval.  
"But with Crowley here, you have the same thing", Dean protested, waving towards the Demon.  
"The possibility for him to fall under their spell as easily as either of you would, is much lower", Gabriel busted Dean's argument.  
"Well, thank you. You still haven't told me what you want", Crowley drew the attention back to himself.  
"I want you to shut the gates of Hell behind you and cease all activities on Earth until we seal The Darkness back in their little dimension", Gabriel told him, after turning on his heels, poking him in the chest  
"Hmm. Let me get this straight: You want to trap us, so they can't manipulate us, but at the same time have us all in one place and if they manage to find Hell, served on a silver plate? I don't think so", Crowley reiterated, using his hands as emphasizes.  
"Then what would you be willing to do to keep your Demons – and more importantly yourself – save?", Gabriel asked, shoving his hands in his pockets after pointing at the Demon.  
Crowley took a moment to think this through.  
"As much as it pains me to admit: I do agree with the staying away from Earth part, but I do have a business to run. What would actually happen if they found us?", Crowley wondered.  
"I don't know. They either use you to bring chaos and destruction onto the world or suck out all your demonic mojo and turn your Souls into twisted, but powerless shells", Gabriel theorized, waving one hand around.  
"I don't like either of those options", Crowley stated.  
"Me neither. One gives them an uncountable power boost, the other gives us more trouble to fend off", Gabriel summarized.  
"Let's say, I close the gates, how am I to know, you will let us out again?"  
"You aren't. It's totally up to us, if we actually uphold our side of the deal", Dean confirmed  
"So, I do have a lot of downsides, but in the case of them not finding Hell I'd at least be sure to survive this mess"  
"Yup", Gabriel agreed.  
"How about, all but one with regularly changing positions? This way, I can still make some deals, have an eye on things up here, but they wont be able to detect us that easily", Crowley offered.  
"It might work", Sam agreed, after thinking it through for a moment and added "With additional warding this sounds like a better option then presenting them on a silver plate"  
"All right that's settled than", Crowley clapped his hands.  
"One more thing: What about Rowena? How's the search going?", Dean dampened his joy.  
"The witch is good at hiding herself", Crowley stated monotonous.  
"Do you think she still has the book?", Charlie interjected.  
"Of course. Now that you've given her the key to translate it, she wont put it away", he told her.  
"So we do have a chance to find her", Charlie concluded.  
"What do you mean?", Dean wanted to know.  
"Remember the Styne's? They always knew where I was because I had the book and they could track it", Charlie reminded him.  
"So we should go and check out their estate if we find anything", Sam suggested.  
"I want to come with you!", Charlie jumped up and added: "We should bring their books and records as well. They probably have loads of knowledge!"  
Dean and Sam looked at each other for a moment, then Sam shrugged.  
"All right, let's go", Dean decided, waving for Charlie to come up front.  
"Don't you want to wait until your friends are back?", Gabriel wondered.  
"No time to waste, we'll meet them soon enough", Dean simply replied.  
"As I am clearly not needed here any more, I'll take my leave", Crowley stated and disappeared right away.

Dean stepped forward and lightly hit Gabriel against shoulder.  
"You're being surprisingly helpful, what's your deal?", he wanted to know.  
Gabriel stared at his shoulder for a moment before he looked up at Dean with a raised eyebrow.  
"Try living with a journalist for a couple of years and you develop a habit of answering questions more detailed unless you want to be subjected to even more questions", he explained, a grin on his face.  
"Oh, come on that's just a cheap way of avoiding to admit that you love lecturing others and listening to your own voice", Hannah commented from the end of the table.  
"Shush", Gabriel shut her up, raising his hand and putting his fingers on his thumb.  
No more noise escaped her mouth.  
"It's clear who's wearing the pants in your relationship", Dean laughed out.  
"Now give her her voice back", he then ordered.  
"Oh, you'd be surprised how good I look in a dress" Gabriel replied, grinning even wider at Dean's horrified look and opened his hand again to release Hannah's voice.  
"Let's go", Dean quickly changed the topic and went off, Sam and Charlie following him.

* * *

When only Bobby, Hannah, Castiel and Gabriel were left the first two started looking through the library of the Bunker to get an overview of things. Castiel tried to explain what he knew of it, whereas Gabriel went to check on Metatron, who was still chained to a chair in the dungeon. He taunted and teased him, when he noticed that Hannah had returned.  
This time the Souls were not in their Soul, but in their Ghost-form and Gabriel had to explain again, what they needed them for. The Harvelle's agreed, Frank reacted in paranoia and Ash had decided to stay in the archives.  
"We have to set up some kind of network, so I can send my findings down here", he demanded, "I guess we should use the wavelength thing you guys use to communicate"  
"It might work. You guys will figure that out. Now let me put you back into your meat-suits", Gabriel acknowledged and snapped his fingers.  
The three bodies appeared beside them and Gabriel put Ellen and Jo back into their bodies first, so Frank could see what would happened. Then it was his turn and as soon as he was inside his body Hannah took Ash and left. The others returned from their exploration and after a warm greeting, brought them up to speed. As soon as he had arrived Frank had felt uncomfortable and wanted to leave, so when they had finished he decided to walk out and get back to his trailer. Gabriel obliged the wish and made the trailer appear before the Bunker. They made Frank promise to stay nearby for now, so Charlie would be able to contact him. The other agreed and left.

* * *

After the new arrivals had settled in as well their chatter was interrupted by a knock. Jo decided to answer the door.  
"Who are you?", a middle-aged Asian looking woman asked in suspicion.  
"You must be Mrs. Tran. I'm a friend of Sam and Dean! Come on in!", she greeted, opened the door completely and made space for the other to enter.  
"Where's Kevin?", Castiel asked when Mrs. Tran stood in the study hall.  
She couldn't even reply as Kevin appeared before Gabriel, who leaned against the table and stated: "You're an Angel."  
"Yup. Archangel even", Gabriel replied, crossing his arms.  
"Archangel? Aren't you supposed to be more graceful and less _filthy_?", Mrs. Tran wrinkled her nose at him.  
"Thank you", Gabriel replied sarcastically.  
"So, you want to put me back into my body", Kevin got down to business.  
"Yup. But first you have to agree to something", Gabriel told him.  
"Of course there was catch", Kevin sighed, folding his arms.  
"Not really a catch. We simply need you to pick up the tablets again and translate them for us", Gabriel stated with a shrug.  
"Because that worked out so well last time", Kevin commented sarcastically.  
"Last time, you didn't have the usual prophet treatment", Castiel interjected.  
"What is that supposed to mean?", Mrs. Tran wanted to know.  
"Every prophet has an Archangel that protects them in case of a threat", Castiel explained.  
"And as I'm the last one, you're stuck with me", Gabriel added with a grin.  
"Yay", Kevin concluded monotonous.  
"So: You'll be back in your meat-suit, are protected by me and all you have to do is just translate stuff for us and there is something more, but I wont tell you until you're back in there", Gabriel summarized, snapping his fingers and pointed towards the body that lay on the ground.  
Kevin looked at his mum and then at his body. He sighed again: "Okay, let's get this over with"

* * *

 **A** **uthor's Note:** With a _minor_ delay you get the third Chapter of this story – though I did manage to publish a Chapter of Changing Channels...wait, no, Chance Meetings on Tuesday, well, it was already Wednesday here, but in some places it was still Tuesday...  
Anyway, with this Chapter I'm actually back on track with the original plans. We'll see how that will work out with the next one(s)...

FYI: The evolution-part is one of the many head-canons I had to think up, so this story would make sense. If you find any mistake in it – or in any of the following, feel free to let me know. It was originally thought up and discarded for this Chapter, but Gabriel decided he wanted to talk about this anyway... That is kind of the theme of this whole story line: I have an idea and he jumps onto the bandwagon and gives me even more stuff to add to it. It's so frustrating when characters totally mess up your plans...

Oh, and if anyone wonders about the dress-comment: Take a look at _3 Blind Saints_ and you'll get how that slipped into the conversation...

And if you remember the "schwungvolly" from last Chapter: This time Metatron lost his "Faden"...("den Faden verlieren" is the German equivalent of "losing ones train of thoughts")

Still, I hope you like the story so far. =)

As I forgot to mention this last time: _Xandria_ 's album _Sacrificium_ played while I typed and finished this and the last Chapter. I'm not a fan, but it was on my hard drive and I wanted some background music, so... and it does have some interesting songs...

[***] This part was added after the Chapter was published. I kind of see this story as work in progress, so it might be that there will be other scenes added as well.


	5. Grasping at Straws

**Chapter 4 – Grasping at Straws**

Kevin looked at his mum and then at his body. He sighed again: "Okay, let's get this over with"  
"All right, let's do this!", Gabriel exclaimed, clapping his hands.  
He rubbed them together and then lifted one hand in front of Kevin's face. Slowly the boys' body lost shape and shrank until it was only a glowing orb in Gabriel's open palm. The Archangel scrunched his face and looked at it for a brief second before he disappeared.  
"Where has he-", Mrs. Tran tried to ask, but was interrupted by his return.  
As if nothing had happened he knelt down like he had done with the others and placed Kevin's Soul back inside his body. He waited for the boy to open his eyes before he stood up, only to receive a hard slap right into his face. Startled he looked at Mrs. Tran.  
"What did you just do to my son's Soul?", she demanded to know, anger clear in her face.  
"Ah, that. There were traces of Darkness in his Soul, I had to cleanse it", Gabriel explained rubbing his cheek.  
"You could have simply said that!", she scolded him and then proceeded to kneel down beside her son.  
"Are you all right Kevin?", she asked him concerned.  
"Yeah, Mum, I'm fine", Kevin replied, sitting up and feeling his body.  
"I'm alive", he breathed in disbelieve.  
His Mum simply took him into a tight embrace that he gladly returned.

"So what's the other thing?", Kevin wanted to know after he and his mother had stood up again.  
Gabriel had given them some space and now turned towards them again, a supposedly innocent, but still mischievous look on his face.  
"Well, you get to molest and torture Metatron to your hearts' content to get information out of him, as long as you keep him alive so that I don't have to revive him again", he offered, a grin spreading on his face, one hand on his back.  
"I can live with that", Kevin agreed, a slightly sinister look in his eyes.  
"Well then -", Gabriel started while turning away from them, but was interrupted by a loud clicking.  
Everyone turned to face the noise and Kevin found himself starring down the barrel of a shotgun that Ellen pointed directly at him.  
"What is the meaning of this?", Linda wanted to know and protectively stepped in front of her son.  
"Okay, okay, it works! Lower the gun!", Gabriel yelled, holding his forehead.  
"Geez. They must have changed the signal or it's just especially loud when the Prophet is nearby...", he complained turning towards Kevin again, as Ellen had stopped threatening Kevin.  
"What was this about?", Linda demanded to know.  
"To see if they turned the Prophet-Archangel-connection back on. Had to be convincing", Gabriel explained and caught the wrist of Linda's hand that aimed for another slap mid-air.  
"You only get to do that once", he told her with a threatening undertone and a malicious gleam in his eyes.  
Linda tried retracting her hand, but he held it tightly in his grip to show her his superiority. The two of them stared into each others eyes for a moment, but as much as she bridled at it Linda had to lower her eyes and as soon as she did that, he let go.  
"Okay, now that that's settled, here you go: Demon tablet and Darkness tablet", Gabriel changed the topic, his mood turned again and held up the plates in his right; "and the Angel tablet – a bit more work with that one", he added jokingly, holding up a bundle in his left hand.  
"What happened to it?", Kevin asked, taking the bundle from him.  
"Cassy broke it", Gabriel commented with a shrug, casually scratching his back with his now free hand.  
"All right. So I have to put it back together...", Kevin concluded.  
"Yup", Gabriel agreed, pushing the other tablets into his arms as well and walking a few steps away.  
"When do we get to see Metatron?", Linda wanted to know.  
"Don't you want to get settled in first? There is plenty of time to make him pay for what he did", Ellen commented, putting her hand on Linda's shoulder.  
Linda nodded and shoved her thoughts of revenge aside for the moment.

Ellen turned her towards the sleeping quarters and showed her their rooms while Kevin sat down at the table unfolding the cloth that held the remains of the Angel tablet.  
"Oh boy", he commented, looking at the pieces in resignation.  
Gabriel snorted at that and absent-mindedly scratched his back again. From the other side of the table Hannah got up from her chair with a sigh. Jo looked up from the Laptop she used to catch up with the news in confusion.  
"The book boring?", she asked.  
"No! I just have to take care of something", she explained as she walked out of the study hall, all eyes on her.  
Jo shrugged and got back to reading as Bobby brought another stack of books and folders to the table. Castiel skimmed half-heartedly through a large volume that rested on his thighs, while Gabriel paced through the room, one hand always on his back.

Linda and Ellen returned to the hall, chatting about their current living situation and already discussing how they would feed all these mouths. Shortly afterwards Hannah returned as well, carrying a pouch over her shoulder. She walked up to the table and loudly took one of the chairs aside. The attention was back on her and she gained confused looks as she turned the seat of the chair away from her.  
"Shirt off and sit", she ordered Gabriel.  
"Pff, why?", he tried to avoid it, looking around, as if she was suggesting something utterly ridiculous.  
"You know why. Don't think I didn't see you scratch your back!", she scolded, one hand suggestively patting the back of the chair.  
Feeling caught, Gabriel took his hand away from his back and sighed deeply.  
"Fine", he gave in and removed the shirt he was wearing while walking towards the chair.  
"Happy now?", he asked sarcastically, as he sat down, his arms leaning on the back of the chair, the shirt simply thrown on the table.  
"Why would I be happy about this?", she rhetorically asked, putting the poach on the table, to empty its content.  
She took out a role of plastic bags, ripped one off and opened it.  
"Hold this", she ordered and gave him the bag.  
"What is that?", Jo asked from the sidelines, craning her neck to get a better view.  
"Never seen burn-scars?", Gabriel retorted annoyed.  
"Gabriel", Hannah scolded him again, putting a pack of absorbent compresses on the table.  
The other just grunted. Kevin got up from his chair to take a closer look.  
"Are these -", he started, but was interrupted by a grumbled "from the fall, yes" coming from Gabriel.  
"Looks nasty", Kevin commented.  
"The scars are pretty much healed, but when he uses his wings too much while in the vessel they start itching or in worst cases even rip open again", Hannah explained opening a bottle of physiologic salt solution.  
Jo now stood behind Gabriel as well, looking at the wounds.  
"That's how far Angel wings reach?", she asked curiously.  
"Why do you have to do this out here? Can't we just go to your room?", Gabriel complained instead of answering.  
"A little humiliation, never hurt anyone. Especially not you", Hannah told him and poured some of the salt solution over one of the two burn scars running down Gabriel's back from his shoulder blades to his hips, catching it with one of the compresses.  
"Nggh! Heads up!", he exclaimed, shuddering at the coldness.  
"Payback's a bitch", Hannah simply grinned.  
This way she cleaned the wound under complains and watchful eyes. When she was finished she put some of the compresses on the two lines and taped them with strips Jo had prepared at her request.  
"Arms up", she ordered when both sides were covered and the handles of the trash-bag tied.  
Disgruntled Gabriel did as he was told and Hannah carefully helped him into the shirt.  
"Shows over", Gabriel declared standing up uncomfortably.  
"I am sorry", Castiel suddenly spoke up.  
"The one that should apologize for this will get his proper payback for this, right?", Gabriel only replied looking at Kevin, who nodded in agreement.

They spent a couple more hours doing research before one after the other turned in for the day. Only Castiel and Gabriel remained in the study hall. Gabriel paced alongside the length of the tables and Castiel fought with himself not to close his eyes, but succumbed more and more into the urge of sleeping.  
"Stop forcing yourself to stay awake", Gabriel suddenly ordered and turned towards his brother, his hands deep in his pockets.  
"I don't need sleep", Castiel disagreed.  
"Yeah. Right. Your eyelids are falling down because of gravity", Gabriel commented sarcastically, leaning his head to the side.  
Castiel looked aside.  
"Look", Gabriel started and sat down in a chair opposite Castiel's, who looked up again, "I know how badly it looks for you. I haven't told anyone about it. Not even Hannah. But you can't go on like this. You have to rest or your Grace will fade even faster", he nearly pleaded and forced himself to look at his brother.  
"It hurts to look at you like this", he told Castiel in a near whisper.  
Castiel looked down, unable to hold his brother's eyes.  
"I have to help them", he finally declared.  
"You're not helping them by killing yourself", Gabriel simply replied, raising an eyebrow.  
"Now sleep, I'll wake you if anyone enters the room", he ordered and stood up again.  
Castiel looked at the table but nodded.  
"Just a few minutes...", he decided and slowly afterwards dozed off into sleep.

In the early morning hours Castiel woke up again and found Gabriel deeply engrossed into an old tomb.  
"How long did I sleep?", he wanted to know with a husky voice.  
Gabriel looked up and answered with a shrug: "Couple of hours"  
Castiel sat up straight and laid his hands on the table, feeling a little dizzy. He hadn't intended to sleep this long. It was time for him to be useful, so he reached out for one of the other books. He had nearly grabbed it when it moved out of his reach. Castiel stared at the book in confusion and then turned his head towards his brother, who had one of his fingers turned in the direction the book had moved.  
"You might want to take it easy", he suggested with a raised eyebrow.  
Castiel sat back again, crossed his arms, his forehead in a frown,.  
"Now you're acting like Hannah's six year old neighbour", Gabriel commented with a laugh.  
Castiel huffed and looked aside. He was not being childish.

After a moment he had dozed off again and was abruptly awoken by a book being shoved into his lap after what only felt like a couple of minutes, but had been some more hours.  
"Morning. Found anything interesting?", Ellen greeted them.  
"Nope", Gabriel answered, dropping his hand on the table.  
"Damn. Well, I'll be setting up some coffee", she decided and walked towards the kitchen.  
Confused Castiel looked between the book, Ellen and Gabriel and decided to simply put the book back onto the table. One after the other the remaining people got out of bed, took a cup of coffee and got back to work, while Linda and Ellen prepared breakfast for everyone. Shortly after that Linda, Ellen, Jo and Kevin made their way into the dungeon to confront Metatron.

It was about midday when the door of the Bunker opened and the Winchesters and Charlie returned. Charlie was still excited about their trip and chatted like a waterfall.  
"And have you seen - ", she started again, but was cut off by Dean: "Yes, Charlie, we've been there too, we've seen all of what you told us about on the way back!"  
"Sorry...", she meekly replied, coming to a stop in the study hall.  
"Dean. Did you have any success?", Castiel wanted to know right away, standing beside the table.  
"We actually found a compass they used to find the book", Dean replied pulling out a little metal object from his jacket pocket and holding it up for the other to see.  
"And tons of other cool stuff!", Charlie added in excitement.  
"We need some help, getting that _cool stuff_ out of the car", Sam added, pointing his thumb over his shoulder.  
"Of course", Castiel replied, already walking towards the exit.  
With a shrug Bobby put down the book he was holding and followed the others as well.

Not interested in carrying _stuff_ around Gabriel had turned on his heels as soon as he had heard Sam's request and was now passing through the corridor with the different bedrooms. On the other end he could already see Hannah, who had just exited her own room. He stopped in his tracks, his hands in his pockets, waiting for her to reach him.  
"How is it going?", he asked when she stood before him and leaned against the wall, his back fortunately freed from the bandages already.  
"Not bad", Hannah said, leaning against the wall beside him.  
"The research is fun and I didn't have to fight any monsters yet, so that's a bonus. Though that does make this whole thing quite a surreal experience. I mean, I know I'm working with the Winchesters and Castiel and Bobby and the Harvelle's, and I obviously know what and who you are, but in my head this is kind of still a very weird dream", she told him, moving her hands about.  
"Don't you miss your old life?", Gabriel asked her half-serious.  
"The one before I met you?", Hannah joked.  
"No, not really. There were schedules and deadlines and stuff", she added, after she received a raised eyebrow and a grunt.  
"There still are deadlines", Gabriel reminded her, now a bit more serious.  
"Yeah, but they're different. Besides here I learn all this new stuff about things I previously didn't even dared believe existed", Hannah tried explaining.  
"Though there is one thing that I do miss. Something, I got kind of used to over the last couple of years", she explained, pushed away from the wall and positioned herself in front of him.  
"What's that?", he asked in light tease.  
She looked the hallway up and down and then grabbed the hem of his shirt to pull him into a kiss. Without further ado he wrapped his arms around her and deepened it.  
"You miss this?" he asked after they broke away, still holding each other.  
"Kind of", she admitted, a small grin on her face.  
He returned the grin and offered: "Guess I can take a little time off tonight"  
"That's very generous of you", she mocked and briefly kissed him again.  
"Gotta go", Hannah told him, patted his chest and went off towards the study hall.  
"See ya", Gabriel called after her.

In the study hall Hannah was met with the sight of several crates and boxes filled with all kinds of curious things and books. Charlie was eagerly rummaging through one of them, while the others unpacked theirs more neatly, stacking the books and putting the objects alongside each other.  
"Can I help?", Hannah offered as she came closer.  
"Sure. Grab a crate and unpack it", Dean waved off.  
Between the six of them the loot from the Styne estate was soon occupying the entire table.  
"Well, let's see if there is actually something useful amongst this stuff...", Dean declared picking a book at random and started skipping through the pages.  
Bobby, Sam and Castiel followed suit while Charlie still toyed around with the gadgets and Hannah tried to read the book titles, but could not make out all of them.

At some point Jo stepped into the study hall.  
"You're back", she simply stated crossing her arms.  
"Jo", Dean exhaled and jumped up.  
Sam got up as well and both of them went to greet her with a tight hug.  
"You have no idea how good it is to see you", Sam told her, still not believing his eyes.  
"Yeah", Dean agreed, patting her shoulder.  
"You've changed quite a bit", Jo commented and added towards Sam: "The hair suits you"  
"Of course you like the girly hair...",Dean scoffed, making them laugh.  
"Your search going any better than ours?", Jo asked, nodding towards the table.  
"Not really, what are you guys up to?", Dean admitted.  
"Trying to get information out of that Angel-dick", she shrugged off.  
"Right now Gabriel is taking a turn and I took the chance to get out of there for a moment", she explained a bit further.  
"Hey guys", Kevin greeted as he approached the three of them.  
"Remind me to never piss off Gabriel...", he told the round, shuddering.  
"Yeah...that's another reason why I left...", Jo admitted, looking aside.  
"What's he doing?", Sam wanted to know.  
"No idea, but Metatron is screaming his lungs out at whatever vision Gabriel has put him into. It's just really creepy", Kevin tried to explain.  
"I mean the guy won a staring contest with MY Mum", he added awed.  
"He what?", Dean asked confused.  
"Yeah. When he was about to put me back into my body he got outside with me to remove stains of going dark side from my Soul, but didn't warn her about it, so she slapped him. Next thing I know after getting back in my meat suit her Mum aims a shotgun at me without warning", Kevin explained, waving towards Jo, before he continued "Mum wanted to slap Gabriel again, but he caught her wrist and just told her that she doesn't get another chance to do that. Honestly, I nearly crapped my pants at the tension"  
"Yeah, he can be quite creepy...", Sam remembered their own encounters with the Archangel.  
"So, back in the meat suit, about time, isn't it?", Dean tried to lighten the mood, patting Kevin's shoulder.  
"Yeah. If it hadn't been for you I would have still been in it, so thanks", Kevin monotonously stated, looking at Dean's hand.  
"Yeah. Sorry about that...", Dean told him, looking aside in shame, retracting his hand.  
"Doesn't matter. I'm back and we have some work to do. So found anything interesting?", Kevin changed the topic.  
"Not really. You started on the tablets yet?", Sam answered.  
"Kind of. I'm half-finished with putting the Angel tablet back together, but I think there might be a few pieces left. I had a quick look at the other tablets and all I got from them didn't sound like it'd be helpful at all", Kevin told him.  
"Great. Whole bunch of nothing...", Dean complained, making a half-turn.  
"Well find something, I'm sure", Sam tried to motivate them.  
A loud bang made them turn towards the table.  
"Sorry...", Charlie apologized picking up the objects she had examined that had just exploded in her hand.  
"Who's she?", Jo asked, while Kevin wondered "Who's that?"  
"Oh, right. Guys that's Charlie. Charlie meet Jo Harvelle and Kevin Tran", Dean introduced them and they walked over to the table.  
Charlie came up to them, looked at her dirty hands, wiped them awkwardly at her pants and then lifted a hand towards Jo: "Nice to meet you – big fan"  
"Fan?", Jo asked in confusion.  
"They haven't told you about the books yet?", Sam asked.  
"Books?", Jo now was even more confused.  
"Long story, better wait for your Mum to get back here to tell it", Dean decided, while Charlie was shaking Kevin's hand.  
After the introduction Kevin shoved some of the things on the table aside to make some space, so he could continue his work on the tablet and Jo picked up a book like the others.

Before Charlie continued to take another look at the different objects on the table she decided to go to the kitchen to wash her hands. There she found Gabriel rummaging through the shelves.  
"Hey, what are you up to?", she greeted him, not having heard the earlier conversation of the others.  
"Looking for a snack", he simply replied, moving on to another drawer.  
"How does that even work? I thought you guys can't taste anything?", Charlie wondered, while she washed her hands in the sink.  
"I can't. Doesn't mean the Trickster powers don't need fuel in form of a sugar rush every now and again", he explained while opening and closing cabinet doors.  
"So, can you taste anything at all?", Charlie asked next, drying off her hands.  
"The candy I usually eat are that sugary that I taste the sweetness. If I was human I'd probably be a dentist's favourite patient", Gabriel answered jokingly, turning towards Charlie at last.  
"You were human for a while", Charlie commented, leaning against the counter.  
"Yeah. Wasn't fun most of the time. Totally weird. Had some advantages though", he reminisced while stroking his beard and continued his search.  
"Yeah. Being human isn't all that bad", Charlie commented awkwardly.  
"C – can I ask you a question? Well, it's more like a favour...", she asked, kneading her hands.  
Gabriel put down the jar he had just looked into and turned around again.  
"You already asked me a bunch of questions, so shoot, maybe I'll do you the favour of answering that one too", he waved off.  
Charlie fidgeted for a moment before she asked: "May – may I touch your beard?"  
Gabriel laughed loudly at the request and asked in reply: "You serious?"  
"Yes! It looks really fluffy...", she tried to defend her request.  
"Okay then, go ahead", he decided, still grinning.  
Giggling like a school girl she let her fingers run through the beard.  
"That's one of the downsides of dating girls: They can't grow proper beards", she thought out loud.  
"If they can, they'd probably be part of a freak show", Gabriel commented, raising an eyebrow.  
"Rude...", Charlie disagreed and took away her hands.  
"But true, I suppose, most woman don't want to get in touch with their wild side – not that I blame them, hair is utterly annoying, but beards...", Charlie ranted, waving her hands about.  
"What are you guys doing?", Hannah wondered, as she had entered the kitchen only seeing Charlie's back.  
Charlie jolted away from Gabriel holding up her hands..  
"I'm not stroking his beard!" she tried, making Gabriel laugh.  
Hannah came closer, looking confusedly back and forth between them.  
"She asked me, if she could touch my beard", Gabriel cleared up the situation, the laughter still in his voice.  
"Ah", Hannah commented crossing her arms.  
"It's really fluffy! You should try it! Which you probably already did...", Charlie tried and looked down befuddled.  
"Yeah. I've had quite some time to get used to this fluffy thing", Hannah agreed stroking Gabriel's right cheek with the back of her fingers.

In the study hall Linda and Ellen had returned from the dungeon, a scrap of paper in Ellen's hand.  
"We finally got some information out of him", Ellen commented, waving the paper.  
"What do you got?", Dean wanted to know, looking up from a book.  
"Supposedly the location of the Archangel tablet", Linda added, not entirely convinced.  
"There is a thing like that? Not that I'm surprised", Gabriel commented, walking up behind them, directly followed by Charlie and Hannah.  
"Okay, were is it?", Sam asked pulling a laptop closer and opening it.  
"46°39′59″N 119°29′05″W", Ellen read, while Sam typed them.  
"Seriously?", Sam asked as the result popped up on the screen.  
Dean looked over his shoulder.  
"Either he's screwing with us big time or he has a weird sense of humour", he commented.  
"Why? Where is it?", Jo asked as she walked up to the laptop as well.  
"White Bluff, seriously?", she readout loud, laughing.  
"Okay, who's going to check this out?", Dean turned the topic from the ridiculous name of the town to more important matters.  
"I'll go", Kevin decided, looking up from his tablet-puzzle and added: "It's a tablet, I'll know if it's there"  
"Then I'll come with you", Linda added.  
"You guys need back up, in case this is a trap", Ellen offered.  
"I'm coming too", Jo agreed.  
"Okay that's settled then. You guys go looking for the Archangel tablet", Dean declared.  
With some preparation the four of them departed and everyone got back to work.

"Still leaves the problem that we found squat about any of the other things", Sam concluded after they had left, sitting back down, shoving one of the books away from him.  
"All I got on Death is some stuff about his work, Deathgods or raising the dead, but nothing on raising Death, not even the ritual Lucifer used", Bobby concluded, waving towards the books he had used for his research.  
"Stupid", Hannah groaned on the other side of the table, hiding her face behind her hands.  
"Who is?", Dean asked confused.  
"I, we, all of us. It's simple, it's right before our eyes!", she exclaimed looking up at Dean, who stood beside her.  
"What is?", Sam asked, not getting it either.  
"DeathGODS. We could simply ask one of them, how to get Death back!", she revealed to them.  
"Yeah, because gods are always so cooperative", Dean snorted.  
"Do you have someone in mind?", Sam asked, wondering were her thoughts would lead.  
"Kali", she simply stated.  
"Kali?", Dean wanted to make sure.  
"Yeah. I think she might be the most approachable as you've already dealt with her. Besides...", Hannah explained and looked towards Gabriel, who stood at the other end of the table and pretended to not follow the conversation.  
"Besides we have Gabriel that might be able to get the information out of her", Sam finished the thought.  
All eyes were on the Archangel and he pointed at himself with his hands: "Me? Remember that she tried to kill me last time we met?"  
"Yeah, but it's still all we got so far", Dean concluded.  
"I wont make the call! She wont answer if I call, anyway!", Gabriel declared, waving his hands and shaking his head.  
"But you know how to call her?", Bobby wondered.  
"Of course. It pissed her off when I called her that way", he replied a sinister grin on his face.  
"Can you at least prepare the call and we do the calling?", Dean offered.  
Gabriel considered this for a moment, wiggling his eyebrows while he thought.  
"All right", he finally decided.

He prepared a bowl with the necessary ingredients and put it on the table in the conference room, away from the books and the other people. Dean and Sam stood beside him as he let a small knife appear in his palm.  
"You say these words and make a little sacrifice to her. Kali is all about blood and violence, so", he told Dean holding up a piece of paper between the fingers of his left hand and the handle of the knife in the other. Dean took both from him and read the paper, while Gabriel retreated into the other room. Sam followed him with his eyes and then turned back to his brother.  
"You think this is a good idea?"  
"As I said: It's all we got so far. I doubt she'll be so stupid as to kill off our only chance at surviving this mess", Dean told him, looking back at Gabriel as well.  
"Yeah, but what if she kills us, because we let them free?", Sam pointed out.  
"We'll cross that bridge when we get there", Dean said and turned towards the bowl again.  
He recited the words from the paper and then took the knife and made a light cut across his left palm, dripping a few drops of blood into the bowl. For a moment nothing happened then they heard a sinister voice from the other room: "So you are alive after all"  
"I'd prefer if I stayed that way", Gabriel replied, an apologetic smile on his face.  
"Never thought about letting me know?", she complained getting closer to him.  
"Nahh. Not really", he simply stated, trying his hardest not to step away from her.  
"You weren't the only one who didn't get the memo", Dean told her, wrapping a piece of cloth around his hand as he and Sam had re-entered the room.  
"So you didn't tell any of your friends?", Kali asked slightly less offended.  
"Friends, such a weird word to use...", Gabriel avoided the answer and her eyes.  
"If I didn't know it any better, I'd say you're afraid of me...", she concluded, now standing right before him.  
"Don't feel like being stabbed today...", he merely replied with a grin.  
"What's this anyway?", she wondered and slowly ran a finger through his beard, only to sharply take it away, cutting his chin in the process.  
"It's called a beard, love, isn't it magnificent?", he simply flirted back stroking his beard and removing some of the blood on his chin.  
"There is no need for you to cover your pretty face...", she complained, disappointed.  
Dean cleared his throat behind her.  
"Don't want to interrupt your reunion, but there was a reason we called you", he told her, his voice steady.  
Kali turned towards him. "Still as cheeky as the last time we met", she told him.  
"Yeah, but I've been through quite some stuff since then and am not that easy to intimidate any more", he told her and showed her the wooden stake he held in his hand.  
"Uuuh...", she commented with a seductive grin, turning halfway towards Dean, her back to the room.  
"You mean like setting free the Darkness?", she asked, folding her arms.  
"How- ", Dean wanted to ask.  
"Oh please, as if word hadn't gotten around that you were the ones responsible for this...", she bluntly told him.  
"Did you also hear about Death?", Sam asked her.  
"That you destroyed his body with his own scythe, of course, I'm a Goddess of Death", she declared arrogantly lifting up her hands.  
"Wait. Destroyed his body?", Dean asked, waving with the stake.  
"Did you think a mere mortal could kill DEATH? You fools...", she laughed, shaking her head and added: "As long as there is one living thing in this universe, there is need for Death and he will continue to exist"  
"Is there a way to get his body back or at least get his Horseman ring from the ashes?", Sam asked next.  
"What do you need that for?", she demanded to know suspicion rising inside her.  
"That's none of your concern. Is there a way or not?", Dean denied her an answer, clutching the stake.  
"Maybe", Kali only answered.  
"What do you want?", Dean asked with a sigh.  
"What can you offer?", she asked in return, a confident gleam in her eyes.  
"How about you stay alive?", Dean threatened, raising the stake.  
"Didn't you forget something?", she reminded him and lifted a small vial with blood.  
"Guys, guys", Gabriel said stepping between them and holding up his arms towards the two of them.  
"Look, Kali, you know as much as we do that the return of the Darkness is a bad thing and you as the most powerful Goddess of Death are the best chance we have at getting Death himself back", he tried reasoning with her.  
"You flatter me, but you know that that doesn't work on me", she told him coldly.  
"Doesn't it?", he replied rhetorically, smiling at her seductively, and eyebrow raised.  
"Maybe if you didn't have that thing in your face, I'd take you serious", she teased waving her finger around the area in her own face.  
He laughed at that.  
"But I guess your right", she told him after a moment, turning to stand face to face with him, leaned closer to him and whispered into his ear: "I am your best chance".  
She moved away from him and cupped his face into her hand and gave him a brief kiss on the lips.  
"Good luck getting Death back", she told him and vanished were she stood.  
"Crap", Dean cursed, throwing the stake forcefully on the ground.  
Gabriel stared ahead for a moment, absent-mindedly running his fingers across his lips.  
"She'll be back", he suddenly declared, looking at his fingertips.  
"What?", Dean asked annoyed.  
"She's terrified", Gabriel stated, rubbing his fingers together.  
"Terrified? She didn't seem terrified to me", Dean argued.  
"Call it personal experience, but Kali will return", Gabriel waved off and expanded on this: "She knows we have some kind of plan and she'll help us if she sees fit and thinks we'll be able to pull this off. Might take a while for her to come around though", he explained.  
"I'm sick of waiting and researching. I want to go out there and DO something!", Dean yelled.  
"You'll get enough action soon enough", Gabriel predicted solemnly.  
"Oh, boy, that was intense", Charlie let out a sigh of relief.  
"I wasn't sure if you guys would kill each other or make out right were you stood", she tried to sum up her thoughts.  
"That's how it always was with us", Gabriel commented a grin on his face.  
"Chuck did not manage to capture that kind of sexual tension", Charlie exclaimed, waving her hand about.  
Gabriel laughed at that and turned aside to walk a few steps and came to a halt beside Hannah.  
"She doesn't like my beard", he told her with a pout.  
"Ooooh", Hannah mockingly commented, earning a grin and a raised eyebrow.

"Ah, I nearly forgot. We need to give Crowley the compass", Dean suddenly remembered and started looking for it on the table.  
It didn't take him long and he picked up the metal object.  
"Let me see", Bobby demanded and took it from him.  
He opened and turned it and tried to understand it.  
"Mind if I give it to Crowley? We kind of have some unfinished business", Bobby asked.  
"I do. I'm coming with you. You're not doing anything stupid!", Dean disagreed.  
After a moment Bobby shook his head, giving in "All right".  
The two of them got outside, to not let him see their progress and Dean called him.  
"You got something for me?", Crowley wanted to know on his arrival.  
"Ah, hello Bobby, long time no see", he then turned and greeted the other.  
"Yeah, no thanks to you", Bobby replied begrudged.  
"Yeah, we got something to help you track down Rowena", Dean changed the topic, before the two of them could get into a fight.  
"So you did procure the tracking device?", Crowley wondered.  
"Yes", Dean revealed and Bobby held out his hand with the compass.  
"Any instruction on how to use it?", Crowley wanted to know.  
"Not really, our guess: It's focused on the book", Dean explained with a shrug.  
"All right. Let me see", Crowley demanded, waving for Bobby to give him the compass.  
"There is a condition", Bobby declared pulling his hand back.  
"Condition? You're giving ME a condition?", the Demon replied stunned.  
"Yeah. You get this thing to get the book, but only under the condition that you bring it back here without using it, so we can deal with it", Dean told him.  
"Do we have a deal?", Bobby wanted to know.  
"I can't use it anyway, you do remember that you need to be a powerful witch to do that. So yes I accept your little condition. I just want to find that witch", Crowley told them, holding out his hand again.  
"Good. Give him the compass", Dean accepted and Bobby laid it into Crowley's open palm.  
"See ya, boys", Crowley bid his goodbye before he left.  
"You think we can trust him?", Bobby wanted to know.  
"Hell no, he's a Demon. But he said it himself: He can't use the book. Besides he hates his mother, so there is a bonus for him finding her", Dean answered truthfully as the two of the returned back inside.

Later that night, when everyone had called it a day, Gabriel appeared in Hannah's room. She sat on her bed, still reading one of the many books in the Bunker.  
"Hey", he made himself known to her.  
"Hey", she replied, looked up and put the book aside on the small table beside the bed.  
"I expected something different", Gabriel mused, a sly grin on his face.  
"What?", she asked standing up.  
"Mostly less clothes", he suggested pulling at her shirt.  
"Oh that...Well, you know, I remembered that you enjoyed being the one taking them off", she flirted back, putting her hands on his chest.  
"How generous of you", he mocked her earlier statement and went in for a kiss.

"So you missed this?", Gabriel wanted to know, grinning widely and tenderly stroking her side.  
"Kind of", she repeated her earlier remark, turning fully towards him, leaning her head on her arm.  
"I surprisingly did get used to having you around all day – and night", she added, caressing his cheek with her free hand.  
He laughed, pulled her closer to him and kissed her briefly.  
"What - ", Hannah was just about to ask as a knock came from the door.  
"Just a minute", Hannah answers startled, looking frantically between the door and Gabriel.  
Finally she decided to get out of bed to dress herself.  
"Don't you want to leave?", she whispered to Gabriel putting on her sleeping shirt.  
"She wont see me, relax", he waved off turning onto his back, resting his head on his arm.  
"You're doing the invisible thing again? Please don't make me look bonkers!", she pleaded, putting on the rest of her sleeping clothes.  
"We'll see about that", he replied with a grin and a wink.  
Sighing Hannah went to answers the door and found Charlie standing on the other side.  
"Hey, sorry, I know it's late, but I thought we could talk for a moment, when no ones bothering us...", the other told her and looked from Hannah towards the bed.  
"Sure come in", Hannah said, getting back into her room and waving her in.  
She sat down on the side of the bed and patted the space beside her. Charlie closed the door behind her and followed the offer.  
Before the two of them started their conversation, Gabriel leaned over and kissed Hannah on the neck, whispering "Guess I'll get going. Laters" and vanished without further ado.  
"What was that?", Charlie wondered suddenly.  
"What was what?", Hannah asked confused.  
"That noise, it sounded..weird...", Charlie tried to explain.  
"I didn't hear any noise", Hannah tried, knowing that she had heard Gabriel's wings, but wasn't sure if that was what Charlie had heard as well, though that seemed unlikely as, while he was invisible to someone, they couldn't hear him leave.  
"Hm. Who knows?", Charlie shrugged it off with a smile.

Gabriel appeared in the hallway so he could take a walk towards the study hall.  
"So you got yourself a mortal now", someone commented from behind him.  
With a snort he turned around: "Kali, I knew you'd be back"  
"Of course. You seem to have a way out of this mess", she replied stepping closer to him.  
"We might", he agreed, smiling suggestively at her.  
"Really, what were you thinking?", she changed the topic and cupped his face with her hand, running her thumb across his cheek.  
"I like it", he replied, leaning closer towards her.  
She used the chance and pulled him into a passionate kiss. Suddenly Gabriel broke the kiss and shoved her away from him.  
"I can't", he simply stated, not daring to look her in the eyes.  
"You're loyal to a mortal?", she asked in disgust, stepping away from him.  
"No. Yes. Maybe", he mumbled and ran a hand through his hair.  
"Look, this is just not the right time for this", he tried to explain, waving his hand from him towards her and back.  
"It never is with you. Everything is always so complicated", she complained, crossing her arms.  
"I'm sorry..."; he merely said, putting his hands in his pockets.  
"Either way", Kali waved off.  
"That is not the reason I came back", she flatly told him.  
"I have summoned the Deathgods to decide if we will help you and you will be the one presenting the matter", she told him.  
"Why me and not one of the thick-heads?", Gabriel wanted to know, stepping from one foot to the other.  
"Do you not know?", she asked confused, pointing at him.  
"Know what?", he asked in return.  
Kali laughed.  
"You really don't know. Deathgods are connected to each other, as we are all aspects of Death himself. Through that we know when we meet each other, so it was easy for me to figure out who you are", she told him and sighed, when his confusion only grew.  
"Why do you think, you can revive mortals?", she asked him, putting her hands at her hips.  
"Because...I...can?", he answered with a shrug.  
"You moron", she scolded him and pocked him in the chest. "You my dear, are the Judeo-Christian version of a Deathgod", she told him.  
"I am what now?", Gabriel asked even more confused.  
"You're abilities to give and take the lives of mortals come from Death, just like mine. Don't you see? That's how I knew who you were, long before you told me. Loki is not an aspect of Death, but Gabriel is", Kali revealed, tenderly stroking his cheek.  
"Really?", he asked, still not convinced.  
"Why would I lie about this?", she asked in return.  
"Wouldn't be the first time you made something up", he replied, leaning into her touch.  
"Not in this case. Besides: I don't want any mortals amongst our ranks", she tried another approach.  
"Ah, that's why. Well, then what are we waiting for?", he replied impatient.  
"Good question, we're already late", she agreed and took him by the shoulder and teleported them away.

* * *

 **Author's Note:** It's been a while (updated Chance Meetings twice in the meantime) and it will probably be a while longer until this story gets an update again. On the one hand did I split the Chapter again, as it seemed far too long and overly crammed before. On the other hand am I trying to get my Advent Calendar finished – it's roughly handwritten, but I still need to type and edit it – and as that is an Original Story of mine it does have a higher priority than all the stories up here. Sorry, I guess.

A few words regarding the wounds: I based the way Hannah treated Gabriel's wounds from the fall on how I've seen open wounds being treated, there are several different ways to do this, but as it is said one should write about things one knows... His fall and everything are by the way explained and shown in Tricked, I just haven't gotten around to write that one yet – especially as I can't publish that before reaching Chapter 10 in Chance Meetings. This story makes sense without knowing that Chapter and Tricked, but that unfortunately doesn't work for the other two...

And as I am probably not the only one petrified by the state of Castiel's wings when he got his Grace back, I decided to show some consequences of what he's been through recently. Besides: To me Gabriel seems like someone who is very protective towards his siblings – at least the ones he likes – and those people/deities he cares about which justifies his behaviour for me. You're free to disagree with this and tell me your point of view in a constructive way. =)

As for the place were the Archangel tablet is: The decision was made between the Ghost Towns Winchester, Lone Star (both obvious choices) and Three Saints Bay, that again would have been a reference to _Three Blind Saints_ – that you should totally check out if haven't done it already. But calling Archangels White Bluffs was just too good to resist. ;)

Still, I hope you enjoyed the story so far. =) And if you want some background music try listening to _Gloryhammer_ 's _Tales from the Kingdom of Fife_ it's fun and weird and fits some of the ridiculousness of this Chapter. But please don't get an earworm of (/let) _The Unicorn Invasion of Dundee_ (get stuck in your head)! =D


	6. A Turn for the Worst

**Chapter 5 – A Turn for the Worst**

When they arrived Gabriel looked onto thick black curtains in what seemed like a dimly lit cavern.  
"Like what you've done with the place; spooky", he joked instinctively.  
Kali just rolled her eyes and wanted to proceed through the curtains, but before she could do that Gabriel grabbed her by the elbow and gently pulled her back.  
"Tell me again, what I'm supposed to do here", he whispered into her ear.  
Kali turned around to him, their faces only inches apart, and answered coldly: "You try to convince the Deathgods that it's worth to help you and your measly mortal friends."  
"And how am I supposed to do that?"  
"You wait here until I call you and then do what you always did best", Kali ordered, her eyes flickering to Gabriel's lips.  
"And that would be?" Gabriel asked with a slight smirk.  
"Talk", Kali only said and stepped away from him with a swift move.  
Confidently she turned to the curtains and opened them to walk onto a stone stage; the cloth falling into place behind her.

" _Dear friends and fellow Deathgods, it was I who called you here to discuss a matter of_ _grave_ _importance. It is a request that was brought to me by an old friend I had thought lost. A friend that has crossed all our paths at some point. With all his flaws I do believe that if he is asking this of us, we should at least give him the chance to hear him out before we deny the request"  
_ Behind the stage Gabriel huffed as he heard Kalis speech, she always had a flare for the melodramatic. Worst of all he didn't know how they would react to seeing him. While it was true that they had crossed path, the majority only knew him as Loki, unless Kali had spread the truth after the whole thing with Lucifer. There wasn't more time to contemplate this as Kali finally introduced him by his real name. Boldly he threw open the curtains and stepped onto the stage. He bowed mockingly to the crowd before letting his eyes wander over them. Familiar faces looked up at him from the low stone benches lined up in a semicircle before the stage; he could see surprise, shock and even anger. Silence had spread amongst them and Gabriel looked to Kali to make her say or do something.  
Instead one of the gods jumped up and yelled: "Don't mock us, Kali. Why have you brought Loki into our midst?"  
"He isn't Loki", a woman from the crowd answered in a calm, yet stern tone, not bothering to stand up, "don't you think I would recognize my father."  
"He – he isn't Loki? But...", the other tried, but only looked from her to the stage.  
"Hel's right", Gabriel agreed, waving his hand nonchalantly towards her. "I have some of Loki's powers and pretended to be him for a while, but I'm still me."  
"What is it you want?" Another changed the topic  
With a nod from Kali Gabriel started his explanation: "Well, you all know what's going on in the world. The Darkness was set free and is gaining more and more power each day" He waited for a moment to let this sink in. "Non of you have been around when we, the Archangels, fought against The Darkness. Non of you know what misery and despair they can create, but you might have seen glimpses of it from their appearance now. It took FOUR of us to bind them back then and it will take at least three of us to bind them again. Death himself holds the key to that, his ring and the other horsemen's rings open the cage that imprisons my brothers Michael and Lucifer. With Deaths body destroyed there is no telling what happened to the rings, so I ask of you: Help us find them or at least help us restore Death, so he can do so himself", he paused shortly again, "And if that isn't reason enough for you: There is a witch on the loose, carrying a powerful magic book that should not have been on this earth in the first place. It was her who set them free and she will wreck even more havoc until the book is destroyed and we all know who has the best chances of doing that." For a brief moment he waited for a reaction and added as an afterthought: "Besides: All of the stuff happening with the mortals and the monsters disrupts the natural flow of souls, I know that bothers you, I know how much it bothers me. We are all aspects of Death after all, so let us united to restore this balance." Just as the words came out his mouth, he knew, he had probably overdone it with that.  
"Pretty words, but it is not your place to rally us. You are after all only a minor aspect of our Master" Kali commented with a grin, her arms folded before her chest. "You may now leave, we will hold council and inform you of our decision", she declared and waved him away.

When he next opened his eyes he was back in the study hall of the Bunker. Everything was silent except for the faint breathing of Castiel who was sleeping at the table, his head lying on his arms. On his way to the table Gabriel waved his hand and the illusion of himself that he had put beside his brother before he had gone to see Hannah, dissipated into blue smoke. He moved the chair it had sat on a bit and sat down himself, resting his head in his palms. His thoughts were racing. Was what he had said enough? Would the Deathgods help them? Was it wise to put the blame on Rowena and not the Winchesters? He didn't know. But it was no good brooding about it.  
He looked up again and his eyes landed on Castiel, who was still fast asleep. With a sigh he got up and walked over to him while swirling his hand to create an artificial blanket that he then placed over him.  
"What am I supposed to do with you, little brother?", Gabriel mused, gently putting his hand on Castiel's head as to not disturb the others' sleep. He frowned. Through this touch he could feel remands of something dark and evil still lingering within Castiel and Gabriel knew he had to remove them or it would weaken his brother even further. Reaching out with his Grace he pushed against the Magic, but this did not go unnoticed. Startled Castiel bolted upright and started screaming.  
"Sorry, bro", Gabriel mumbled, holding him down forcefully and continuing to disentangle the Magic.  
Castiel's screams echoed through the Bunker and it didn't take long for the others to wake up and check out what had happened.  
"Stop it!" Dean yelled, pointing his gun at Gabriel's back.  
Castiel clawed at the table and buckled under Gabriel's touch.  
"I said stop it!" Dean repeated firing a warning shot into the ceiling.  
His focus still on Castiel, Gabriel send Dean flying backwards, knocking the gun out of his hand.  
"What's going on?" Sam now wanted to know, helping his brother up.  
"That son of bitch's torturing Cas!" Dean summarized angrily, just before another ear-piercing scream left Castiel's throat.  
"Dean. I'm not sure that's what he's doing", Sam commented, trying to calm his brother, but still holding him back.  
"Finally someone with a brain!" Gabriel commented as he suddenly let go of Castiel and stepped aside.  
Castiel slumped in the chair, his arms stretched onto the table and his head barely hanging above it. He panted heavily, but soon sat up again, "I'm fine Dean", he wheezed and slowly turned around.  
"What did you do?" Sam asked, finally letting go of Dean.  
"There were some remands of a spell or something. I removed them", Gabriel explained leaning against the table, himself a little breathless.  
Beside him Castiel got up to demonstrate his own words, but as soon as he stepped behind the chair he collapsed onto the ground.  
"CAS!" Dean yelled, sliding to the others side. He patted Castiel's cheek to get the Angels attention, but he didn't react, so he shook him instead, while continuing to call his name in an anguished plea.  
"Dean!" Sam stopped him by grabbing his brothers shoulders, "He's just unconscious. I think."  
"Sammy's right. Cassy just needs some rest", Gabriel agreed.  
"Alright", Dean finally stopped, still slightly shaking and just laid his hand on Castiel's chest, "Let's bring him to one of the empty rooms."  
He moved around to lift up Castiel's upper body, while Sam took care of his legs. Together they carried him towards the room, passing the others, who had followed the exchange from afar.  
"Which one?" Charlie asked walking ahead.  
"That one", Dean nodded to a room on the right and Charlie opened the door.  
Sam walked past it, so Dean could walk in first and together they laid the Angel on the bed.  
"I'll stay with him, you go back to sleep", Gabriel decided entering the room.  
"The hell you will!" Dean complained.  
"He'll probably sleep until the morning. SO, YOU go to bed, I will stay here", Gabriel repeated a little more threatening this time and grabbed Dean by the shoulder and turned him to leave.  
Wincing in pain Dean left with his brother but not without a last glance at Castiel and a warning: "You call us, if he gets worse!"  
"Of course..." Gabriel replied, rolling his eyes and shut the door in their faces. He plopped down on the other side of the bed and stretched out his legs and rested his head on his folded arms. "Now look what you've done, Cassy", he mumbled before he too closed his eyes for a moment.

Outside Dean paced around for a while.  
"He'll be fine!" Sam encouraged, but his brother wouldn't listen.  
"This is all our fault", Dean muttered under his breath, "We let it happen to him."  
"It was his choice to help us", Sam reminded him.  
Dean stopped in his tracks and turned towards his brother. "Are you serious? His choice? We didn't give him a choice!" Dean now yelled at him.  
"Hey!" Charlie called out, stepping between them. "You heard Gabriel! Cas just needs some rest and so do you. So get back into your beds and stop talking such nonsense."  
Reluctantly Dean gave in and they all returned to their rooms, dwelling in their own thoughts.

A strange feeling awoke Gabriel and he sleepily opened his eyes. Blinking a few times he slowly became aware of the shadowy figure standing at the end of the bed. He snapped his fingers and the lights turned back on.  
"Hel!" He exclaimed, jumping up from the bed. Gabriel walked over to her coming to stand a step away from her.  
"You're alive", she only whispered and stared at him, a small smile only visible on the human side of her face.  
"I am. I'm sorry I didn't tell you", he apologized and gently put his hand on her corpse cheek.  
She put her hand on his on for a moment she just watched him, before she made a step forward into an embrace. "You've become far more similar to him than you might think", she joked and let go of him, seeing his confused look she added coldly: "Loki wouldn't have told me either if it meant to expose his secret."  
Gabriel looked away and his eyes landed on Castiel who was breathing evenly in his sleep.  
"He's fading", Hel commented following his gaze.  
"I know and there is nothing I can do to stop it", Gabriel admitted through gritted teeth.  
Silence spread between them before Hel broke it: "They will have a decision soon."  
"A good one?"  
"Depends on what you define as good. We would have to make some arrangements first, but I think most of us want Death back the way he was", Hel explained calmly, looking away from Castiel and towards Gabriel.  
"That is good then, I guess", Gabriel commented dryly.  
"It's good you've taken charge in this", Hel told him, a proud gleam in her mismatching eyes.  
"I'm not so sure about it I'm - ", Gabriel tried to disagree, but got interrupted by: "Not a leader. I still believe you underestimate yourself, Gabriel."  
The Archangel snorted at that and looked towards Castiel again. "What good am I as a leader if I can't even protect the people I've taken charge off?"  
"It's not your fault", Hel reassured him and put her hand on his arm. "I have to leave, the council is awaiting my return. Fare well, Gabriel"  
"You too, Hel", he returned the gesture.  
Within another the moment she was gone and Gabriel snapped out the lights again.

Castiel was still paler than usual, but at least I could sit upright at the table. He sleepily watched the others have breakfast and tried to ignore their worried glances in his direction. Silence hung about them, the only noise coming from the cutlery and plates. Suddenly there was another one. A piercing, yet faint ringing.  
"A phone?" Sam wondered out loud and got up to follow the noise.  
One after the other – except the Angels – they did the same until it stopped. Just to begin again a second later.  
"Someone's persistent", Dean commented.  
It took several more calls for them to locate it. Hannah knelt down beside one of the shelves full of artefacts and from its lowest levels she pulled out a box filled with old payphones of many different kinds. She held out the box to Sam who then looked through them and soon found the ringing one and answered it: "Hello?"  
 _"SAM! Is that you?"_ The man on the other side nearly yelled into his ear in excitement, _"Man, I never thought this number would still work, but it did, I'm so relieved."_  
"Who is this?" Sam asked and Dean came to stand beside him to listen in on the conversation.  
 _"It's me, Garth!"_ The other only replied, _"Have you already forgotten about me? Just because I'm on the other side of the barrel now doesn't mean I'm dead."_  
"Garth...", Sam repeated baffled and the others looked at him in confusion.  
 _"Listen man, I need your help"_ , the former Hunter just continued.  
"What happened?" Sam now went into business mode.  
 _"I don't know, I think I'm going Dark Side"_ , he admitted, fear clearly in his voice, _"There is a pull and I feel hungrier than usual, more aggressive and it's not just me, it's the whole pack..."_  
"Crap", Sam commented.  
 _"What's going on, Sam? What's happening to me? To my family?"_ He pleaded.  
"I – There is something on the loose that's affecting you and others like you", Sam tried to explain.  
 _"Can you stop it?"_  
"I-I don't know", Sam admitted and looked at his brother over the phone, "Where are you?"  
There was silence at the other end of the line and as Sam just wanted to call out to Garth he said: _"I'll text you the location. You should be the ones taking care of this. I can't, I can't - "_ His voice broke as he spoke and Dean grabbed the phone: "Listen up, Garth. We will find a way to stop this. No one's going to put a bullet through you until then."  
 _"Dean..."_ , the other only sniffed, tears audibly dampening his voice, _"Thank you, but please hurry, I don't want to kill anyone."_  
"I promise", Dean agreed and Garth hung up with a last good bye.  
"Garth?!" Bobby asked confused, "What mess did that scrawny kid got himself into now?"  
"He became a Werwolf", Sam flatly told him and Bobbys eyes widened in surprise. "The Darkness is starting to affect him and his pack", he then continued.  
"I know we haven't discussed this, but", Dean started and turned towards Gabriel, "is there a possibility that you can cure Werwolves?"  
"No way. That change is permanent", he shrugged off.  
"Can you remove The Darkness without affecting the wolf or the person?" Charlie wondered out loud, sitting down in one of the chairs again.  
Gabriel contemplated this for a moment, "It might be possible. No idea what that'll turn them into though..."  
"We have to try. I'm not letting them go on a killing spree. Not on my watch.", Dean decided and turned back to his brother.  
"Got the address", he acknowledged lifting up the phone.  
Dean nodded. "You guys keep looking into this stuff, we'll go check on Garth", he then ordered and added towards Gabriel: "And you will meet us there."  
"Shouldn't I just bring you?" He wondered.  
"He has a point, Dean. With him we'd be there way faster than we ever could with the car", Sam agreed, but before Dean could say anything his phone rang again.

"Jo? You okay?" Dean answered.  
 _"Yeah, everything's fine. Just wanted to let you know that we got the tablet. We're stocking up on some supplies before we drive back"_ , she told him and he could hear rustling in the background. " _It was pretty much where he said it would be and -"_  
"Jo? Jo, what's wrong?" Dean asked nervous about her pause.

"I think we might have a problem...", Jo said into the phone, her eyes fixed on the man before her, that stared at her with black eyes.

* * *

 **Author's Note:** After the year-long break I wanted to finish this chapter two weeks ago, but I only managed to write the Deathgod Council part and then lost my concentration. The following day I just wanted to bang out the draft for an original SHORT story idea. That story has reached 25k (& counting) by now and didn't even let me read something when I wasn't writing...  
Few nights ago I then dreamed about Gabriel pulling me towards him (still not entirely sure how that physically worked, as it involved me passing underneath the person - presumably one of the main characters of the other story - while all of us sat in cinema chairs, but he did), so I'm guessing it was a minor hint that he wants me to finish this story...right?

I struggled a lot with the pacing of the overall story and where I wanted to put certain scenes within the narration, but I think this is the most interesting way. Let's see how they'll get resolved - and hopefully it won't take me more than a year to do that...(I want to finally be able to watch Season 11 :'( ). If anyone's interested: I do believe I found quite a fitting song for this whole thing: _Avantasia – Let the Storm Descent Upon You._ Maybe one day I'll manage to write down my Supernatural-playlist of songs the remind me of the show and its characters...

Regarding the Loki thing: I just can't believe that Gabriel was the actual Loki, for me it seems quite more reasonable that the real Loki just got into one of his travelling sprees and needed a decoy in Asgard that would keep up appearances and found someone willing in Gabriel. So yeah, one of the many headcanons I came up with for this story to make sense.  
Do I need to mention that I'd also have some ideas about Gabriel's early Trickster years? No? Good… I won't write it until I've at least finished this one, Chance Meetings and one other story on here. It might be called "Road to Mischief" though.

Anyway, I'll be at another round of Scion-natural (P&P mixture with elements from Scion and a SPN-like narration) later today, so no more writing. Though I am curious how we'll get rid off those Bloodbats…


End file.
